Nothing expands Android 17 beta to three more phones, but you'll have to act fast

Nothing is sticking to its Android 17 schedule, and three more phones are now joining the party. If you own the Nothing Phone 4a, Phone 3a Pro, or Phone 3a, you can finally try Nothing OS 5.0 — but you’ll need to move quickly.

The company announced earlier today that the Nothing OS 5.0 Open Beta is now rolling out to all three devices. The update weighs 2.82GB on the Phone 3a Pro, so you may want to find a reliable Wi-Fi connection before hitting the download button.

Nothing is giving owners only one week to join the beta. Once that enrollment window closes, you won’t be able to jump in later. We’ve already seen this with the Phone 3 and Phone 4a Pro, whose beta windows have now closed. So anyone who misses it will have to wait for the stable update.

Thankfully, that wait shouldn’t be too long. Nothing currently plans to release the stable Nothing OS 5.0 update for the Phone 4a, Phone 3a Pro, and Phone 3a in early November, although the exact timing may vary by region.

So, what will you get for taking the early plunge? Quite a lot, actually.

Nothing OS 5.0 combines Android 17 with a substantial visual refresh. You’ll find 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 should also make the home screen feel more personal.

There are plenty of practical additions, too. You can split notifications and Quick Settings into separate panels, rearrange multiple home screen items at once, and connect or disconnect Bluetooth devices directly from Quick Settings. The new Glyph app also gathers Glyph Interface controls in one place.

Nothing has added Collector widgets to turn photos into home screen decorations, Away Time widgets to track your screen breaks, and several camera upgrades. Expanded dark mode, brighter HDR content, improved screen recording, Noto 3D emoji, and new privacy indicators round out the update.

Just remember this is still beta software, and some features may be broken or unavailable. So back up your data first, or maybe even consider waiting until November if you can’t afford unexpected bugs on your daily phone.