Top 15 Features You Must Check Out
So you recently got the Nothing phone (1) and are done admiring the phone’s brilliant design. You are ready to get the most out of your smartphone and activate all its best features. But if you’re coming from an older iOS device or a heavy skin like Xiaomi’s MIUI, you might find the stock-like interface of NothingOS a bit confusing to get around.
Don’t worry, here are the top 15 settings and features of the Nothing phone (1) that you must check out before you start using it.
Enlarge folders on the home screen
Nothing phone (1) has a unique implementation for organizing folders on the home screen. When you group multiple apps in a folder, you can long press the folder to enlarge it. The folder will now not only appear larger, but also give you access to the first three apps in the folder directly, while the rest of the folder can be accessed by tapping the bottom right group of icons in the folder.
Enable Push to wake, Lift to wake
If you like to skip the process of pressing the power button to light up the screen or taking a quick glance at it to check your notifications, one setting you need to enable is “Lift to Wake”. You can find it in Settings/Display/Lock screen and scroll down to the bottom of the page. Alternatively, you can also use “Press to wake” or leave both switches on to use both at the same time.
Enable battery percentage
You can enable a numeric battery percentage at the top right of the screen if you find the simple battery icon a little hard to read, or just need a more accurate guess at how much battery is left. To do this, navigate to Settings/Battery/Battery percentage and turn on the switch next to the setting. You should immediately see a battery percentage sign next to the battery icon on the status bar.
Use Screen Attention
Screen focus is one of Android’s most underrated features, and while you won’t get the option on many devices, the Nothing phone (1) is one of the phones that can take advantage of this clever trick. When screen focus is enabled, the phone will not lock the screen when it is angled directly towards your face.
This overrides the default setting of automatically locking the screen after a fixed time (10 seconds, 30 seconds, etc.) and is useful for keeping the screen on when reading something in a browser or doing other tasks that don’t involve constantly interacting with the phone.
Change what the power button does
A long press on the power button on the Nothing phone (1) doesn’t take you to the usual shutdown and restart options like most other Android phones do. Instead, you will be taken to Google Assistant. To change this function, go into the settings and navigate to Apps/Assistant/Hold Power for Assistant. Turn off the switch and the power button should not work as you expect.
Turn off 5G settings
If you currently live in India like me, chances are you don’t have 5G coverage in your area yet. However, the Nothing phone (1) is set to use 5G by default and as a result constantly hunts for 5G networks, which can drain the battery faster. Fortunately, you can turn this off until you can actually use 5G in your city. Do this by navigating to Settings/ Network & Internet/ SIMs/ and find the ‘preferred network type’ option and set it to 4G.
Find the Always-on display setting
You probably know what the Always-On Display feature does on phones by now. However, it is a bit difficult to find the setting on the Nothing phone (1), because it exists under a different name. You can find the switch by navigating to Settings/ Display/ Lock screen/ and look for the option called ‘Always show basic lock screen info’. Toggle this on or off to enable or disable AoD on your device.
Change your icon pack
The Nothing Launcher that you see on your phone (1) by default isn’t the most feature-packed, but it does come with some popular features like changing your icon pack. Once you’ve downloaded and installed a third-party icon pack from the Play Store, you can simply long-press an empty area on your home screen and select “Personalization.” On the Personalization page, select Icon Pack and choose the icon pack you want to use.
Use the “Developer Options” settings
The “Developer Options” page is one of the first things I enable on every Android phone I use and for good reason. The page allows you to access many more hidden settings that can be very useful if you know what you’re doing (but don’t mess with things on this page).
On the Nothing phone (1), you can enable developer options by going to Settings/About phone and clicking on the ‘Software Info’ tab next to the picture of the phone. Inside, tap the build number seven times to enable developer options. When you are notified that these settings are enabled, you can set them by going to Settings/ System/ Developer Options. Some of the settings I personally find useful here include ‘Default USB Configuration’, the animation scale settings and choosing a fake location app.
Activate the Glyph Charging Meter
The Glyph lights on the back of the Nothing phone (1) do more than just shine up during calls and taking photos. One of the most useful aspects of the lights is the Glyph Charging Meter feature that lets you take a look at how much your battery has charged by shaking the phone when it’s upside down. The setting can be found under Settings/ Glyph Interface/ Charge meter.
Always show the keyboard in the app drawer
You can set the Nothing Launcher app drawer to automatically show you the keyboard to search for apps when you open the drawer. This can be done by opening the app drawer, pressing the menu with three dots at the top right and activating ‘Always show keyboard’.
Use game mode when playing games
A simple Game Mode section lets you use a few features to ensure you’re not interrupted in the middle of competing titles. These can be found under Settings/ System/ Game mode. You can block calls, minimize notifications and prevent accidental touches with the options here.
Double tap the power button to open the camera
There are no lock screen shortcuts on the Nothing phone (1) yet, but you can set a shortcut to the camera app that is triggered by double-pressing the power button. You can find this switch under Settings/ System/ Gestures/ Quick open camera. If you have multiple camera apps, you can set a default app to open with the shortcut when you first trigger it.
Set up Face Lock
While the fingerprint sensor on the Nothing phone (1) is pretty neat, you can also enable Face Unlock on the device, as you would on any supported Android phone. You can go to Settings / Screen lock and security / Face lock and configure the function from here. Note that your facial data remains on your device.
Use lock mode
Lock Mode is a great feature to use when you’re in a place where you feel your security features can be easily bypassed. This can be done using methods such as using your photo to trick Face Lock or using a Bluetooth device set to unlock your phone near the device. With lock mode, you will only be able to unlock the phone with the PIN code, pattern or password as long as the function is switched on. You can enable lock mode by long pressing the power button to enter the power menu and tap “Lock”. Repeat this to disable the function.
