Nothing gets something, as Android 13 arrives for Nothing Phone 1

Nothing has been ramping up its software development in recent months after scaling from an initial team of five engineers to a full-time staff of one hundred employees dedicated to the task of improving Nothing OS. The gains have been most noticeable with an Android 13 beta program for the Nothing Phone 1 that only took two months to produce a stable version, as of today’s release of the official Nothing OS 1.5 build. Users on Reddit and Twitter have reported receiving an OTA update for the stable version of Android 13 on Tuesday. XDA reports the file is only 157MB when updating from the latest beta release, though we’re not sure of the size when upgrading from the stable Android 12 release. People in India, the UK, Ukraine, and the US have reported receiving the update, so it seems to be a worldwide rollout — however, beta testers appear to be getting priority, as we’ve yet to find reports of users on the stable channel receiving the official Android 13 build. The update adds over a dozen new ringtones and alerts that coordinate with the Nothing Phone 1’s Glyph lighting system, courtesy of a Nothing Machines 2 sound library. There’s a new Weather app that connects to the existing home screen widget to show AccuWeather forecasts in true Nothing style, and the Nothing X app is now bundled with the OS to help you manage Nothing-branded accessories like the Ear 1 and Ear Stick. Speaking of accessories, you’ll also find a new mini menu when tapping the Bluetooth tile in your Quick Settings panel. Since this is based on Android 13, you’ll get new upstream goodies like Material You themed home screen icons, improved privacy settings, and granular media permissions. There’s also a revamped volume menu with support for Live Caption, and Nothing has taken the time to add new customizable shortcuts that appear in the bottom corners of your lock screen. If you’d like a tour of all the new features, we did a deep dive on the Android 13 beta for Nothing Phone 1, and there are plenty of fun new tweaks and improvements that are worth checking out. Otherwise, Nothing’s changelog for the new version is copied below, with minor edits for clarity.