This iPhone challenger could transform smartphones by trading apps for AI

London-based electronics manufacturer Nothing is revolutionizing smartphones, ditching traditional apps in favor of an interface entirely managed by AI.

Nothing CEO Carl Pei said on Twitter: “We need to redefine the way we use smartphones. The current user experience hasn’t evolved in over a decade. The next era requires hyper-personalized and dynamic cross-device.” Interaction.”

Pei said the best way to reach AI would bring a completely different smartphone user interface than what we know today. He shared a preview of what the next Nothing smartphone will look like, breaking away from the usual grid of apps and widgets.

“We have been exploring ways to deeply integrate AI into surgical systems,” said Nothing designer Walid, who was featured in the video shared by Pei. “We tried to reimagine the home screen. We wanted it to be less of a launcher and more of a hub for contextually relevant information.”

In the “post-app world of the future,” Nothing suggests that users will simply interact with AI, asking it to perform any task. The AI ​​assistant then coordinates all necessary applications in the background to complete the request without any further interaction from the user.

He said nothing offers every user “a highly personalized companion that feels like your best friend.”

Walid demonstrated an AI-assisted setup, where the system asked for personality traits he considered important in a companion. The assistant said he liked people who were funny, thoughtful, and had a good sense of humor, and then he introduced himself as Oliver.

“We’ve all been playing with this prototype internally for the past week,” he said. “We’ve all been given a variety of companions that seem to be uniquely tailored to each of us.”

Pei insisted his company was ready to compete in the red-hot AI field.

“Over the last 3.5 years, we have been busy building our end-to-end capabilities… Once we have reached stability and have solid growth plans in place, we are ready to shift gears,” he said. “We’re in the consumer AI race.”

There is no companion quite similar to ChatGPT’s voice chatbot, at least according to the preview. It’s a flat circle on a black background with a pleasant, human-like voice. However, it did not specify whether this assistant would run locally or in the cloud. However, given the computing power required to run similar AI tools, it is likely that this will be a cloud-dependent feature.

Pei started Nothing in 2021 after leaving Chinese electronics maker Chinese electronics maker Chinese Huawei, which entered the smartphone market with the $300 OnePlus One in 2014. Nothing’s first phone was released in 2022, cost less than $500, and ran a customized version of Google’s Android operating system.

Nothing Phone(2) has moved firmly into the high-end smartphone market, taking aim at Apple, Google, and Samsung with its well-received $600 flagship device. Last month, a more properly configured Nothing Phone (2a) went on sale for $350.

It’s unclear whether the reimagined interface Pei shared today will be part of the yet-to-be-announced Nothing Phone (3), but Pei said it will be released in 2025.

Pei has not shared any further details about the upcoming device, so its design, specifications, and features are still unknown. Hardware enthusiast sites and forums predict that it could adopt an upgraded Snapdragon 8 processor along with a camera module and a larger battery upgrade. But Pei’s key point is a thorough user interface.

“We have come a long way in the last 10 years to be the only company to build a smartphone business,” he said. “We have also developed a creative culture at the company that emphasizes great UX and thoughtful integration between software and hardware.”

Meanwhile, other smartphone companies are already integrating AI features into their devices. The Google Pixel lineup with the new Google Tensor chips integrates on-device Large Language Models (LLMs), while the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra with Galaxy AI offers features like real-time translation and Circle to Search.

Smartphones with the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, such as the Xiaomi 14 and new Motorola models, also offer AI-based features.

Ultimately, the best way to carry AI is likely to be the ubiquitous smartphone rather than a specialized device. Human AI Pins have been criticized for their lack of practicality, high latency, and low accuracy. The better-reviewed Rabbit R1 appears to be mostly powered by an app that runs scripts in the cloud. And the promised Limitless AI pendant has yet to prove its worth.

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.