Here's a new Nothing feature that will test your loyalty to Apple and Samsung phones
Essential Voice is all about perfecting voice input and translation.
If you don't want to type or deal with voice messages, voice-to-text is the way ahead. | Image by Nothing
My dream – and probably your dream, too – is about to happen. Voice-to-text input is getting better, like, much better.
The Nothing brand makes the promise with its new Essential Voice feature.
On the scale from 10 to 10, how much do you hate typing on that tiny phone screen? OK, joking aside, there are some people who do that extremely well. Even with long fake nails, which is nothing short of amazing.
But many of us detest typing on phones anyway. So maybe we send voice messages instead? Not so fast – many resort to that, but there's a growing group of people who find this equally irritating.
Those who listen to music or podcasts 24/7 will understand the annoyance with having to pause whatever you're listening to just to hear 70 seconds of uhm, well, basically, like, you know, and lots of air gasping.
This is why I, personally, often use the voice-to-text feature on my phone. It's OK sometimes, but it's absurd almost always, especially when I'm not feeding it super-simple sentences or words.
The Essential Voice feature is available now on the Phone (3). The Phone (4a) Pro will follow later in April, while the Phone (4a) will adopt in early May.
As the company behind it correctly points out, speaking is naturally faster and more efficient. But voice messages come with obvious drawbacks: they are time-consuming to listen to, awkward in situations where audio playback is not possible and inefficient when you only need a quick summary or key point.
Standard voice-to-text tools also fall short. While they convert speech into text, the output is often messy and unpolished, filled with filler words, pauses and inconsistencies that require heavy editing afterward. I can confirm that.
Nothing wants to steer away from raw transcriptions and into the clean, structured text territory in real time. That's like combining the speed of speech with the clarity of written communication. It is built directly into the keyboard and the Essential Key.
Beyond basic transcription, Essential Voice removes filler words and can automatically format output into messages, emails, lists, or step-by-step instructions depending on how you speak.
Essential Voice also supports over 100 languages with automatic detection, including regional variations, and can translate and transcribe speech simultaneously in real time.
The system can also map recurring phrases into shortcuts, allowing users to turn spoken inputs into consistent, predefined text outputs, such as standardized names or saved details like addresses.
On the privacy side, Essential Voice only activates when manually triggered. Audio is encrypted during processing, converted into text on servers, and the final output is sent back to the device without being stored.
This is a super useful feature; Apple and Samsung need to step up their game.
The Nothing brand makes the promise with its new Essential Voice feature.
Typing sucks, right?
On the scale from 10 to 10, how much do you hate typing on that tiny phone screen? OK, joking aside, there are some people who do that extremely well. Even with long fake nails, which is nothing short of amazing.
But many of us detest typing on phones anyway. So maybe we send voice messages instead? Not so fast – many resort to that, but there's a growing group of people who find this equally irritating.
Those who listen to music or podcasts 24/7 will understand the annoyance with having to pause whatever you're listening to just to hear 70 seconds of uhm, well, basically, like, you know, and lots of air gasping.
This is why I, personally, often use the voice-to-text feature on my phone. It's OK sometimes, but it's absurd almost always, especially when I'm not feeding it super-simple sentences or words.
Which phone offers the best voice-to-text?
iPhone.
11.11%
Galaxy.
8.33%
Pixel.
38.89%
Nothing, but I have to check the new feature!
13.89%
Phones from China.
8.33%
No phone can do it well enough.
19.44%
The solution
The Essential Voice feature is available now on the Phone (3). The Phone (4a) Pro will follow later in April, while the Phone (4a) will adopt in early May.
Video by Nothing
As the company behind it correctly points out, speaking is naturally faster and more efficient. But voice messages come with obvious drawbacks: they are time-consuming to listen to, awkward in situations where audio playback is not possible and inefficient when you only need a quick summary or key point.
Standard voice-to-text tools also fall short. While they convert speech into text, the output is often messy and unpolished, filled with filler words, pauses and inconsistencies that require heavy editing afterward. I can confirm that.
The new text
Nothing wants to steer away from raw transcriptions and into the clean, structured text territory in real time. That's like combining the speed of speech with the clarity of written communication. It is built directly into the keyboard and the Essential Key.
Beyond basic transcription, Essential Voice removes filler words and can automatically format output into messages, emails, lists, or step-by-step instructions depending on how you speak.
More stuff
Essential Voice also supports over 100 languages with automatic detection, including regional variations, and can translate and transcribe speech simultaneously in real time.
The system can also map recurring phrases into shortcuts, allowing users to turn spoken inputs into consistent, predefined text outputs, such as standardized names or saved details like addresses.
On the privacy side, Essential Voice only activates when manually triggered. Audio is encrypted during processing, converted into text on servers, and the final output is sent back to the device without being stored.
This is a super useful feature; Apple and Samsung need to step up their game.
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