Nothing Launcher is the default Android launcher developed by Nothing for its range of smartphones. It has become synonymous with Nothing devices, providing the primary home screen, lock screen and app drawer experience on phones running Nothing OS and aligning with the company's distinctive dot-matrix minimalist designs, custom widgets and integrations with other products from its line-up, such as the Ear series.

Before the launch of Nothing's first phone, the Phone (1) in July 2022, Nothing released a preview of its launcher as a public beta on the Google Play Store on 28 April 2022, allowing some Android users to experience a taste of Nothing OS and provide feedback ahead of launch. Initial supported devices included the Samsung S21 and S22, and the Google Pixel 5 and 6 series, before it was rolled out to all devices running Android 11 or higher.^[1] Testers were able to provide direct feedback through Nothing's Discord server and a dedicated launcher email address.

The beta launcher included several of Nothing's signature design elements and features that still exist today, including:

• Max Folders - Enlarged app folders and folder cover icons on the home screen.
• Clock & weather widgets - The first ever widgets to appear on the launcher, with Nothing's dot matrix design.
• Nothing wallpapers - A number of themed wallpapers to match Nothing's aesthetic.

There were also two additional wallpapers and three original ringtones available to download separately via nothing.community. These wallpapers, simply titled “Hand”, “Face” and “Dog”, showcased Nothing's now-infamous lenticular photo filter.^[2]

Initial reactions to this beta preview were mixed, with some users expressing positive thoughts on the launcher's minimalism and available widgets, while others likened it to a basic stock launcher.^[3,4]

The launcher underwent at least four updates during its beta, which included enhancements such as: dynamic colour support, multi-sized widgets, UX improvements like being able to change the wallpaper from the home screen, and bug fixes.^[5,6]

While it's hard to distinguish key update versions due to a lack of in-depth changelogs, there are a few notable versions from over the years.

November 2022. In the months following the release of the Phone (1), users of other supported Android devices were still able to install and enjoy the launcher up until v1.2.10, released in November 2022. At this time, the launcher was made exclusive to Phone (1) devices running Nothing OS.^[7,8]

July 2023. With the release of Nothing OS 2.0 came an update to the launcher which enabled support for users to download and install the Nothing Icon Pack. This pack further helps enforce Nothing's minimal design language, turning all app icons monochrome (black and white), aiming to reduce distractions and create a uniform design.^[9,10]

October 2023. In v2.5.1, Nothing added the ability to hide app icons in a separate “Hidden Apps” screen, which allows users to hide apps from their app drawer, while still maintaining all app functionality. It was previously accessed by swiping right on the app drawer.^[11] In later versions, this was changed to an icon at the bottom of the app drawer to make way for Private Space, which was released in May 2025.^[12] Initially, Private Space completely replaced the Hidden Apps feature, however, after backlash from users, Nothing reinstated Hidden Apps in a future update.^[13,14]

March 2024. This version introduced the ability to limit the Nothing Icon Pack styles to the home screen only or both the home screen and app drawer. This gave users the best of both worlds - experiencing the minimalism and distraction-free monochrome home screen, while easily recognising and locating app icons in the app drawer. V2.5.9 also enabled hiding notification text for locked apps.^[15]

March 2025. A function to long press on an app in the Recent Apps screen allowed users to quickly close all apps.^[16] The placement of the “Clear all” button being to the far left of all open apps has been a popular topic of discussion since Nothing first introduced their launcher, with some users comparing to similar launchers featuring a button placed prominently underneath the recent apps. Many users speculated that the “Clear all” button was placed in such a way to discourage users from regularly closing all apps, which could lead to a higher battery usage when reopening commonly used apps.^[17] The addition of this long press operation was to provide users with an alternative method of closing all background apps.