The Nothing OS 5.0 beta finally delivers Android 17 to the Phone (4a) Pro, a week late

Nothing OS 5.0 has been sitting in Open Beta on the Phone (3) since late August, and as of today a second phone can join it. The Nothing Phone (4a) Pro can now pull the Android 17 build that Pixel 10 Pro owners have had for some time now, and much like Apple's yearly iPhone updates, this one is mostly about how everything looks.

Nothing confirmed the rollout in a post on its own community forum, and a new report notes that the 2.73GB download is arriving more than a week after the early September window the company set for itself.

What Nothing OS 5.0 changes on the Phone (4a) Pro

Most of what is here is about how things look, and these are the changes you will notice first:

• The Geist typeface throughout, plus rebuilt settings and camera screens and wider dark theme support
• Glyph features moved into a dedicated app, joined by Collector, Away Time and Glyph Timer widgets
• Dual-view video that records with the front and rear cameras at the same time
• Separate notification and Quick Settings panels, courtesy of Android 17

Not everyone is getting past the check version screen

Over on r/NothingTech, a Phone (4a) Pro owner said they followed Nothing's official steps and double checked they were on the correct build, and the beta app still told them their system version was not eligible for the program.



Nothing's own community thread is in similar shape, with dozens of replies under the announcement reporting a network error at that same check version step, and a member of the Nothing team eventually stepped in to say they were looking into the download link. I checked my own Phone (4a) Pro earlier and got the same message, so I am giving it a few more hours before assuming anything is broken.

The parts that are still missing from this build

Nothing has confirmed that the refreshed home screen and the Micrographics clock face, the two changes most people were waiting for, are still in development and will arrive with the general release starting in October.

Carl Pei has already conceded that the company may have moved too quickly, so a beta showing up without the redesign it was announced with is a slightly awkward look.

How to join the Nothing OS 5.0 Open Beta on the Phone (4a) Pro?

Enrollment runs through the Nothing Beta Hub app, and the access channel stays open for seven days before it closes to new participants. It is not available in Japan right now, since local certification there is still pending.

1. Download the latest Nothing Beta Hub APK from Nothing's dedicated OS 5.0 page
2. Open the app and sign in with your Nothing account
3. Tap check version and wait, because the build can take up to five minutes to appear
4. If a stable update shows up first, install that one and check again

If you would rather sit this one out, the general release for the Phone (4a) Pro is penciled in for early November, which is only about eight weeks away. That is not much time to trade for a phone that keeps working the way you expect, and after this morning I am half tempted to wait it out myself.

More on Nothing OS 5.0 and the Phone (4a) Pro:

• Every phone getting Nothing OS 5.0, and the three that are not
• Carl Pei answers for Nothing's design shift
• Nothing Phone (4a) Pro

• Follow me on X
• Follow me on Threads

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