Nothing Launcher is a free personalization application developed by Nothing Technology Limited for mobile devices. It is a preview of the custom app launcher included in Nothing OS that will be running the upcoming smartphone released by the up-and-comer tech company, Nothing.

Compared to Nova Launcher or Microsoft Launcher, Nothing Launcher takes on a more minimalistic approach to its design and presentation. It instead focuses on simplicity and ease of use. This beta version will let users have a glimpse of what the Nothing Phone 1 and Nothing OS will bring.

What Nothing gets you

Nothing is a technology company founded by Carl Pei of OnePlus fame. Its first product was a pair of wireless earbuds called the Nothing ear (1), which seemed like it would be focusing on consumer tech accessories. Then the Nothing Phone 1 was announced alongside its custom in-house Nothing OS, and now the beta preview for its Nothing Launcher was released for users to try out.

The launcher is pretty much like any custom launcher available for Android today, but it was developed with Nothing's design philosophy in mind. The result is a minimalistic approach to the user experience. You'll get a bunch of custom widgets and wallpapers. For settings, there is a paltry selection of things you can configure, including adjusting the app grid, applying third-party icon packs, and enabling wallpaper scrolling.

There's also what the company calls Max Icons and Folders, which lets you enlarge your home screen icons and folders for a distinct look, and presumably, better legibility. Now, if you're interested in trying it out, just know that it supports only a handful of devices, such as the Galaxy S21 and S22 series, as well as the Pixel 5 and 6 lines of smartphones.

Nothing much

If you're going into this with much excitement, you should temper your expectations a bit. The Nothing Launcher is a nice preview of what's to come with the Nothing Phone 1 and its Nothing OS. However, there's really nothing much on offer here—just the basics. As mentioned, this is a beta so there might be more features on the way in future updates.