The Pixel 10 is coming, and while Google is busy stuffing it with AI tricks and the latest Tensor chip refinements, there’s a different kind of innovation happening elsewhere. Enter the Nothing Phone 3a, a device that somehow manages to bring fresh ideas to the smartphone scene, despite the fact that we all thought there was nothing left to innovate.
Carl Pei’s Nothing has a habit of taking simple ideas and making them feel essential. The Nothing Phone 3a isn’t about raw power or bleeding-edge AI—it’s about little details that actually improve how you use a phone every day. And some of these details? Google should be taking notes.
Here’s what the Pixel 10 could steal from Nothing’s latest mid-ranger and actually come out looking like the smarter phone for it.
1. The Essential Key: A button that does what you want, not what Google thinks you want
Remember when smartphones used to have buttons? Not just power and volume rockers, but actual useful buttons? Nothing brought that back with the Essential Key, a programmable button that can launch apps, trigger shortcuts, and generally do what you tell it to do.
Meanwhile, Pixel users are stuck with… the power button, which Google keeps insisting should launch Assistant instead of, you know, turning the phone off. If Google stole the Essential Key concept and made it smarter, we could have something truly useful.
Nothing Phone (3a) might go head-to-head with iPhone SE 4
Imagine a Pixel AI Button that learns your habits—mapping itself dynamically based on what you do most.
- Take a lot of voice notes? It opens Google Keep.
- Always snapping photos? Instant camera access.
- Need real-time translations? One tap, Live Translate.
Instead of forcing Assistant or some random shortcut, Google could finally give users a real quick-access button, one that adapts to you instead of the other way around.
2. Essential Space: A smarter place for all your random screenshots and notes
Nothing’s Essential Space is the kind of feature that sounds boring until you realize you’ve needed it for years. It takes voice notes, screenshots, and saved links, then organizes them automatically. Think of it as a mix between Google Keep, Google Lens, and an AI assistant that actually pays attention.
Take a screenshot of an event poster? Essential Space will suggest adding it to your calendar. Save a news article? It might summarize the key points. Record a voice memo? It gets transcribed and turned into a to-do list.
Now imagine if Google did this with all of its AI horsepower.
- Google Keep but smart—auto-sorting notes by topic, detecting reminders in your voice memos, and generating searchable summaries of everything.
- Screenshots with actual intelligence—instead of dumping them into your camera roll, Google Photos could extract useful info and suggest actions.
- Google Assistant, but actually helpful—surfacing saved content when it’s relevant, rather than waiting for you to dig through your archives.
This is the kind of AI-powered productivity boost that would make the Pixel feel more than just “the best Android camera phone.” It could actually make your daily workflow smoother.
3. Glyph Interface: A smarter notification system
Nothing’s Glyph Interface is one of those features that seems gimmicky—until you actually use it. The idea is simple: instead of relying on your screen or audio alerts, a set of customizable LED strips on the back of the phone give you visual cues for notifications, calls, and app activity. Different apps can have different light patterns, meaning you can tell who’s calling or what app just pinged you without even flipping the phone over.
Meanwhile, on a Pixel? Your options for subtle notifications are pretty much limited to vibration. Sure, there’s an Always-On Display, but that’s just showing the same lock screen info in a dimmer way.
Google could do something way better than just slapping LEDs on the back:
- A Pixel Glow feature that lights up the camera ring subtly for notifications.
- Edge lighting that adapts to alerts—like how Samsung’s Edge Lighting works, but smarter.
- AI-powered glyph animations that react to voice assistants, alarms, or even music playback in a cool, unobtrusive way.
The Pixel has been leading the charge on ambient AI, but sometimes the simplest quality-of-life improvements make a bigger difference than another AI chatbot.
4. Optimized Periscope Zoom: Phones deserve better telephoto
The Nothing Phone 3a Pro has a periscope-style 3x telephoto lens—something Google only includes on its Pro models. And the worst part? Google’s Super Res Zoom is already amazing, so adding even a modest periscope lens would instantly turn mid-range Pixels into the best zoom cameras in their class.
The current Pixel lineup forces you to choose:
- Get the base Pixel and deal with digital zoom.
- Spend more for a Pro model just to get a periscope lens.
But Nothing just proved that periscope zoom isn’t exclusive to $1,000 flagships. If Google is serious about camera dominance, the Pixel 10 needs optical zoom that isn’t just cropping a 50MP sensor.
5. More playful and transparent UI elements
Google’s Pixel UI is clean. Polished. Minimalist. But sometimes? It’s a little… boring.
NothingOS has this distinct transparent, layered aesthetic that makes the phone feel alive. Animations are fluid, widgets blend into the UI in a way that feels organic, and the overall design gives the impression of hardware and software working together—rather than just Android with a custom wallpaper.
Google should take notes here. Imagine:
- A Pixel UI refresh where widgets and notifications feel dynamic, not static.
- Live, AI-generated wallpapers that react to your day—weather, music, or even notifications.
- More seamless Material You customization that adjusts not just colors, but how icons and UI elements flow together.
Right now, Nothing’s software feels fresh, while Google’s UI sometimes feels like an old iPhone user’s idea of what Android should be. It’s time for a little more fun.
Google, it’s okay to steal the good stuff
The Pixel 10 is going to be an AI powerhouse, but that’s not enough. It needs the kind of human-focused design upgrades that Nothing is nailing right now. Small things—a better button, smarter notifications, more playful software—can make a phone feel more personal, more natural, and just more enjoyable to use.
Google has the tech. The AI. The brand recognition. Now it just needs to steal the best ideas and make them better.
Featured image credit: Nothing
