Nothing OS 5.0 (Android 17) rolling out to Phone (3a), (3a) Pro, (4a), (4a) Pro: new Glyph app, widgets

Reports on the Phone (3) release describe more than 80 changes across the interface, performance and AI features, and add Live Updates in the status bar. Android 17 itself brings separate Notifications and Quick Settings panels, cross-platform Quick Share, a redesigned Recents screen, adjustable Enhanced HDR brightness and 3D emoji in the keyboard.

The Phone (3a) and (3a) Pro also get a Tuning feature with seven adjustable effects, and the Phone (4a) and (4a) Pro get faster transcription in Essential Voice with lower latency.

The full changelog

Beyond the headline items, the changelog for all four phones includes the Geist typeface and a refreshed Settings interface, two new lock screen clock faces with custom clock colours, and an expanded dark theme that forces dark mode on many apps that do not support it natively. Quick Settings gets single-tap Bluetooth connect and disconnect, the status bar indicator now uses three colours for sensitive access, location and AI processing, and Live Updates in the status bar have been refined. The camera interface has been refreshed, with improvements to recording, zoom, close-up shooting and QR scanning.

The Phone (3a) and (3a) Pro get upgraded Presets with a 2x2 widget and Filters and Tuning for video, in addition to Dual-view Video, while the Phone (4a) and (4a) Pro get Dual-view Video and the faster voice transcription. Nothing warns that battery use may rise and the phone may run warm during installation, and that performance should return to normal afterwards.

How the rollout compares

The stable Android 17 release reached the Phone (3) on 12 October, after a beta period, and the (3a) and (4a) series followed 18 days later, which is faster than an earlier estimate that put the (4a) two months away. The gap is a reminder that Nothing is staging the update by device, region and carrier, and that a phone that has not received it yet will normally get it within days.

The build numbers are C5.0-261023-2146 for the Phone (3a) and (3a) Pro, C5.0-261023-2145 for the Phone (4a) and C5.0-261021-1625 for the Phone (4a) Pro. The package for the (3a) series is about 3.09 GB, so a stable Wi-Fi connection is advised, and Nothing recommends backing up data before installing. Users can check for the update manually under Settings, System, System updates and tapping Check for updates. The rollout is done in batches, and one reviewer reported that their own Phone (4a) Pro had not received it yet days after the rollout began.

The timing across Nothing's range is not fully consistent in the reports. One table lists the Phone (4a), (4a) Pro, (3a) and (3a) Pro for early November, which matches the current rollout, and the Phone (4b) and the CMF Phone 2 Pro for mid-January 2027. An earlier report had said the full release for the Phone (4a) was two months away, so the update has arrived earlier than that estimate.

Nothing has scheduled the stable update for the Phone (2a) and Phone (2a) Plus in mid-November and for the Phone (3a) Lite in late December, according to one report. The Phone (1), the Phone (2) and the CMF Phone 1 will not receive Nothing OS 5.0, which ends their major software upgrades.

Owners of the four phones can check for the update now, but the staged rollout means that a missing update is not a fault. Because the package is large and the update changes the interface, it is sensible to charge the phone, connect to Wi-Fi and back up before installing, as the company advises. The reports do not give India-specific rollout dates or prices, and they do not say whether the update has reached Indian users in the same batches as the global rollout.

The update is also a step in Nothing's push to make its Glyph lighting system a software platform, with the dedicated Glyph app and the Glyph Timer widget, and to add AI-related features with visible indicators of when sensitive data is processed. How well it performs on the older (3a) hardware, which received a bigger download, will be clearer once more users have it.