Back in 2020, Carl Pei, the co-founder of OnePlus, announced his exit from the company. At the moment, the exact reasons were not clear, but now we can imagine. Pei was probably dissatisfied with the goals set for OnePlus. In 2020, OnePlus surpassed the formula for only a few flagship phones per year. The company has become “generally involved” in launching mid-range phones and low-end smartphones under its Nord series. A few months after its exit, we got a big surprise with the announcement of a merger between Oppo and OnePlus.
Nothing Phone (1), Nothing OS, Nothing Launcher
While OnePlus was said to remain independent, nowadays, we can see that the brand is no longer the same. Carl Pei left the company to launch his own company called Nothing. In the beginning, the brand was said to be a brand only for wearables and lifestyle products. However, it acquired Essentials and its patents, leading us to believe that the company would eventually launch a smartphone. The phone will come with the Nothing Phone (1) moniker sometime this year. According to Carl Pei, the phone will be different than usual with very close to vanilla Android and an experience that will make it a true rival to the iPhone. Today, the company has launched Nothing Launcher Beta, giving us our first glimpse of the software.
Suddenly, Google decided to deploy Nothing Launcher to other Android devices on the Play Store. This is an interesting approach because it basically means that the company will bring some of its apps to all Android devices. The goal is probably to attract more users to the upcoming “Nothing Ecosystem”. Nothing Launcher is stylish but simple enough. It is similar to the stock Android launcher but has a set of standard circular app icons and a custom wallpaper. In addition, Nothing Launcher brings a set of special widgets that are at par with the aesthetics of the software. The device has a cloud and a weather widget. Both come with dot matrix typography and can be had with a clear or black background.
nothing launcher available for different devices
Nothing Launcher also brings a feature called Max Icons and Max Folders. You can also press and hold any icon or app folder on the Home screen and click a button to supersize it. This will move the icon or folder from a 1 x 1 size to 3 x 3. Obviously, there’s still a long way to go, but keeping a launcher as simple as that without bloatware is unlikely.
According to the company, the launcher will come for Samsung Galaxy S21 and S22 series. Google Pixel, Pixel 6 series will also get this. The company will also offer support for OnePlus devices in the near future. However, it is possible to sideload the app and install it on any Android device without any hassle. It probably depends on your Android version, but I have managed to install it on a POCO X12 Pro running a custom Android 12 ROM. I downloaded the app through APK Mirror database, enabled installation from unknown sources and the app was ready to use.
How to Download Nothing Launcher
- Visit this link (Credit to APKMirror) and wait for the time required to download
- Click on the APK you just downloaded to install it. Your browser will require authorization to install from unknown sources. Just give permission and the installation process will start.
- Depending on your ROM you will be prompted to choose your default launcher. However, sometimes you have to go to Settings >> Apps & notifications >> Default apps >> Home and select Nothing phone as your default launcher.
The launcher was just released, so it’s hard to determine how many phones will run it properly. We can recommend you to try and install it with your luck. Devices running Android 10, Android 11, Android 12 will probably run it without any issues. Older Android versions may not be compatible, but again, it needs testing. We look forward to seeing if Google won’t bring a few more apps to the Play Store. The process is quite simple, and with APKMirror it is safe for you to download and install. So you are free to try without many issues. Ultimately, this process does not represent any risk to your device.
According to rumours, the Nothing Phone (1) will come with Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and Nothing OS. Obviously, Nothing Launcher is the first glimpse of this upcoming OS. The company will provide three years of Android updates and up to four years of security patches.
