Nothing’s 3a series budget phones are finally getting a taste of Android 16

A feature-rich Android 16 update finally lands on Nothing’s most affordable phones, unlocking smoother performance, smarter AI tools, and a refreshed user experience.

By Shikhar Mehrotra Published December 1, 2025

What’s happened? The London-based smartphone manufacturer Nothing has rolled out its latest firmware build based on Android 16 for two of its budget offerings.

Called the Nothing OS 4.0, the software update is rolling out for two of Nothing’s most affordable smartphones.
These include the Phone 3a and the Phone 3a Pro. So far, these phones have been running a version of Nothing OS 3 based on Android 15.
The new update brings a wide range of enhancements, including design refreshes, smoother multitasking, and new AI-powered tools and camera options.

Why is this important? Google’s Android 16 brings improved system performance, smarter notifications, better security, and a couple of new features.

Nothing OS 4.0 also has a long list of additions, including a new AI usage dashboard that tracks large AI model usage for improved privacy and transparency.
Users can now hide apps directly from the home screen or the app drawer. Popular widgets, including Weather, Pedometer, and Screen Time, now have more size options.
Further, the company has made system-wide optimizations to minimize startup speed.

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Why should I care? While those are just the operating system upgrades, Phone 3a and Phone 3a Pro users also get plenty of new features.

For instance, Flip to Record can now take photos and add notes while recording. Then there are two community driver apps: Playground (Alpha) and Essential Apps (Alpha).
Nothing has also redesigned its native app icons with a fresh look, along with updating the status bar icons.
For dark mode fans out there, budget phones now offer “Extra dark mode,” which delivers a more immersive dark aesthetic.

OK, what’s next? With Nothing OS 4.0, the Phone 3a and the Phone 3a Pro now have a toggle to choose whether Flip to Glpyh switches to silent or vibration mode. Further, the Glyph Progress feature now uses Android 16 Live Update notifications.

The Camera app now has presents, filters, supports Motion Photos, watermarks, and a refreshed user interface.
While the update is rolling out to a limited number of Phone 3a and Phone 3a Pro users at first, Nothing will roll it out to all users once it determines whether everything is working as intended.

Shikhar Mehrotra

News Writer

For more than five years, Shikhar has consistently simplified developments in the field of consumer tech and presented them…

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