Droid Life reported on October 12 that Nothing OS 5.0, built on Android 17, has arrived on the Nothing Phone (3), the first Nothing phone to get the stable version. It follows a beta that began in August. If you own a Phone (3), open Settings, System, System update and check. The rollout is staged and varies by region, so not every unit sees it on day one.
What the update changes
Per Droid Life's rundown, which draws on Nothing's own feature post (I could not load that post, so I am relying on the report), the visible changes are a visual refresh with the Geist typeface, a new home screen theme with transparent widgets and tinted icons, new lock screen clocks, redesigned settings and camera controls, a Glyph Timer widget and an Away Time widget that tracks how long you leave the phone down. It also lists simpler Bluetooth device connecting, separate notification and Quick Settings panels, Live Updates in the status bar and a per-app dark theme. It says apps launch and scroll faster.
That last claim comes from the report and from Nothing, not from a measurement we made. This site has no lab and has not tested it. Android Central ran its own piece the same day under the headline "Beta no more", which I could only read as a headline, so I am not drawing anything from it.
The schedule for every other Nothing phone
Nothing has not, as far as I could find, published the schedule for the other models on a page I could read. Trade outlets published a table when the beta opened in August, and they call the dates indicative. Nokiamob's version and TBreak's agree on most of it:
- Phone (4a) Pro, Phone (4a), Phone (3a) Pro and Phone (3a): general release in early November.
- Phone (2a) and Phone (2a) Plus: mid-November, after a beta in mid-October. One outlet lists an earlier date, so treat that one as unsettled.
- Phone (3a) Lite: late December, with no beta.
- Phone (4b) and CMF Phone 2 Pro: mid-January 2027.
Both outlets say rollout is phased by region and carrier, so a date for your model is the start of a window, not the day it lands on your phone. I did not find any of these dates confirmed again after the August table, so the Phone (3) arriving in the mid-October slot is the one piece of evidence that the schedule is holding.
Who is left out
The same reports say the Phone (1), the Phone (2) and the first CMF Phone will not get Android 17, because they have finished their major update cycle. That does not necessarily mean they get nothing: I did not find what security patch commitment Nothing has stated for them, and I would not assume either way. If you own a Phone (2), the useful move is to read your current patch level under Settings, About phone, Android version, and check it against the date. We covered how to read that for other brands in Android update not showing up.
For the phone you own
On a Phone (3), this is a full version jump, from Android 16 to 17 underneath, so expect things to sit in different places. The hardware does not change: camera, battery and chip are the ones you have. The reasons to install are the security patch level and the new features; the reason to wait a week is the first round of bug reports that follows any big version, which Nothing has not addressed in anything I found. Back up first and leave several gigabytes free.
On any other Nothing phone, nothing changes today. Check the date range for your model: most of the catalogue should see the update between early November and January, if the table holds.
Samsung's schedule for the same Android version has been less tidy, as which Galaxy gets One UI 9 and when shows. And if your phone is on the list of models that stop getting updates, what it means when a maker ends updates applies to any brand.
Last updated October 14, 2026