Ryan Haines / Android Authority
I like to think that I was cautiously optimistic when Nothing swapped from the line-based Glyph Interface to the dot-based Glyph Matrix with the launch of its Phone 3. In reality, though, I was mostly just cautious. I was worried that in trying to make its iconic LED lights do even more, Nothing would wind up with another attractive but ultimately useless gimmick — kind of like its pseudo-transparent back panels. And, now that it’s been a few months, I feel like I was right.
Nothing’s toybox is growing, but it’s still pretty empty
Ryan Haines / Android Authority
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve given the Glyph Matrix its chance. I’ve installed just about every Glyph-themed app to make its way to the Play Store, figuring that one of them — just one of them — would add something good. And, on a surface level, they’ve at least added something. I picked up a digital leveler and a new toy called Glyph Dial from a paid app called Glyphify, and more recently installed a 50/50 chance simulator called Coin Flip from Dot Hub. They’re all… fine.
Well, of those three, I have to give Glyph Dial the most credit. It’s the one Glyph Toy that I’ve actually started using regularly, as it lets me create a speed dial for ten contacts of my choosing. All I have to do is press the little Glyph button on the back panel, cycle through contacts, and raise my Nothing Phone 3 to my ear to start a phone call. And, if I spent more time actually calling people, it would be brilliant.
It's fallen to the community to make the Glyph Matrix good, and the going is slow.
Unfortunately, though, I’ve found some pretty consistent limitations across the rest of my new Toys. The leveler, for example, works pretty well until you consider the fact that you’re using the display of your Phone 3 as the leveling surface. Now, if you’re just hanging a poster, that’s probably fine, but if you need to level anything rougher, you’re probably going to cringe the whole way through. I’d also much rather carry around a single coin — or pull one from my car — than toggle through a whole list of tools to find the right one.
But hey, at least Nothing is taking some of the best community-made Toys and baking them into recent Nothing OS updates. One such example is a compass that you can toggle between degrees and cardinal directions. It’s a good idea, though one I might have expected at launch rather than a few months later.
Only, there’s a problem with the compass, too: I can’t get it to point the right way. When I sit it down next to my iPhone 17 Pro, I find that Nothing’s compass is off by as much as 90 degrees, indicating that true North is actually Northeast, or worse, East. Other times, though, it’s spot-on, which somehow makes it harder to trust. Thankfully, I know my way around my grid-organized neighborhood, but I could very much see the Phone 3 leading someone astray in a more meandering city.
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