Nothing officially launches Android 13 for Phone (1), six months after Pixel

Ben Schoon | Feb 21 2023 - 6:40 am PT

After a soft launch last week, Carl Pei’s Nothing is today officially launching Android 13 for the Nothing Phone (1).

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The Nothing Phone (1) is now getting its Android 13 update widely, Carl Pei’s startup announced today. The update first started rolling out to beta testers last week, but as of today is available to all owners of the Phone (1).

In a blog post, Nothing details what’s new in “Nothing OS 1.5,” the company’s skin on top of Android. Nothing says this is its “most significant upgrade yet,” which certainly makes sense given this is the first major Android upgrade the company has performed – the Nothing Phone (1) launched with Android 12 out of the box.

What’s new? The full changelog lists a host of improvements, fixes, and new features, but some highlights include:

New Nothing weather app.
Refined camera app interface.
Up to 50% increase in app loading speed.
More “Material You,” meaning more color schemes available for matching third-party apps to wallpaper.
Lockscreen shortcut customisations. Create shortcuts for camera, torch, device controls, and wallet.
Easily switch data usage when using dual SIM with the improved network Quick Settings panel.
Improved volume control. Easily adjust individual volume sliders without unlocking the screen (e.g., music vs. ringtone).

Android 13 was first launched on August 15, 2022, for Google Pixel phones, and has since rolled out widely to devices from Samsung and OnePlus. Nothing is certainly behind the curve on this one, which is quite surprising given the company’s lightweight skin on top of Android. Given Carl Pei’s original attitude toward the update, though, we’re not entirely surprised it took a while.