Nothing Expands Android 17 Beta to Phone 4a, Phone 3a Pro, and Phone 3a
Nothing opens Android 17 beta to Phone 4a, Phone 3a Pro, and Phone 3a, with a one-week enrollment window.
The update weighs 2.82GB on the Phone 3a Pro, so Nothing advises users to find a reliable Wi-Fi connection before downloading. Nothing has previously closed beta windows for the Phone 3 and Phone 4a Pro, and owners of those devices can no longer join. For the newly added models, Nothing currently plans to release the stable Nothing OS 5.0 update in early November, though exact timing may vary by region.
Nothing OS 5.0 combines Android 17 with a substantial visual refresh. It includes the new Geist typeface, updated Settings and Camera interfaces, cleaner status bar icons, smoother animations, new wallpapers, and more lock screen clock customization. Wallpaper-aware colors, tinted icons, and transparent widgets are intended to make the home screen feel more personal.
Practical additions include splitting notifications and Quick Settings into separate panels, rearranging multiple home screen items at once, and connecting or disconnecting Bluetooth devices directly from Quick Settings. A new Glyph app gathers Glyph Interface controls in one place. Nothing has also added Collector widgets for turning photos into home screen decorations and Away Time widgets for tracking screen breaks.
Camera upgrades, expanded dark mode, brighter HDR content, improved screen recording, Noto 3D emoji, and new privacy indicators are also part of the update. Because this is still beta software, some features may be broken or unavailable. Android Authority reported that users should back up their data first or consider waiting until November if they cannot tolerate unexpected bugs on a daily phone.