Nothing answers its critics on YouTube

A company that reads its reviews out loud

On 17 November 2024, Nothing publishes a video on its YouTube channel titled "Nothing OS 3.0 Haters Went TOO FAR… Here's Our Response!".¹ In it, three members of the team behind the software, introduced as Justin, Yuri and Rob, take on "the Nothing OS 3.0 hate mail" and other concerns about the beta update.¹ According to afaqs, executives from the product development, design and marketing teams read out negative consumer reviews and explain design changes that did not land with fans.²

The format is unusual for a consumer electronics company. Criticism that most brands answer with a statement, if at all, becomes the subject of the brand's own content, presented by the people responsible for the product. They appear under their first names, as colleagues rather than spokespeople, which gives a software update a set of human faces. The afaqs analysis sums up the effect: "what sets it apart is how blunt and direct the comms strategy of Nothing is."²

The founder in front of the camera

The habit starts at the top. Carl Pei, who co-founded OnePlus and left it in October 2020 to start Nothing in London, is the company's most visible face.³ In July 2023 Nothing publishes "Nothing CEO Reacts to Phone (2) Reviews", in which Pei responds to seven videos, among them reviews by MKBHD, Mrwhosetheboss and The Verge.^{4, 5} He accepts The Verge's point that Google's Pixel 7 Pro does better in low light and questions the six out of 10 the publication gives the phone.⁵

The format becomes a series. In March 2024, Pei and the team read out critical posts about early leaks of the Phone (2a), and afaqs lists Linus Tech Tips alongside MKBHD and Mrwhosetheboss among the reviewers whose verdicts Pei answers on camera.^{6, 2} Answering leaks before a launch turns rumour into a preview the company hosts itself. A founder who responds to named critics by name turns the company's leadership into part of its brand. Reviews that would otherwise define the product from the outside become the occasion for Nothing to tell its own side, on its own channel and in its founder's voice.

Naming the sources of its ideas

On 31 October 2024, two and a half weeks before the feedback video, Nothing publishes "we COPIED these OS SECRETS to build Nothing OS 3.0".⁷ Its hosts, Heru and Mladen, walk through the operating systems that influenced the new software.⁷ According to afaqs, the video names features taken from Nokia's Symbian, from the Windows software Nokia used on its later phones and from the iPhone, and Nothing's software creative director cites the iPhone's skeuomorphism, a style that imitates the look of physical objects, as an inspiration.² Both OS 3.0 videos end with a giveaway of a Phone (2a) Plus for viewers who subscribe to the channel, which ties the openness to a concrete goal: a larger audience for the next answer.^{7, 1}

Most brands present new design as original. Nothing puts its references in the title, in capital letters, and makes the admission the hook of the video. The candour gives up a claim to pure invention. In return it presents Nothing as a company that is open about how its products come about and secure enough to say where its ideas come from, a stance that also credits the work it builds on.

Transparency as product and as tone

The videos echo the company's product design. Its first product, the Ear (1) earbuds of July 2021, uses clear plastic that lets buyers see the internals, and transparency remains a signature of later Nothing products.^{8, 9} The communication follows the same idea: the workings of decisions, criticism included, stay visible. afaqs describes the brand as "unconventionally transparent" in its communication and links that freedom to its size next to larger rivals.²

The format carries on beyond the software. Reacting to reviews of the Phone (3) in July 2025, Pei says: "I think whenever you do something different, some people are going to love it, some people are not going to like it."¹⁰ In the same video he calls it "really great that we have so many users that care about us", but adds that "it went a little bit overboard with the Phone 3."¹¹ A founder who stands by the design and still acknowledges the backlash keeps the conversation inside Nothing's own channels, where the brand sets the tone of its answer. Each video makes the reception of a product part of the brand's story rather than a verdict delivered about it from outside.