Nothing Phone (3) Kills the Glyph Interface for a ‘Glyph Matrix’… But There’s A Massive Problem

When Nothing launched their first phone, it was centered around the Glyph Interface, not as a gimmick, but as a core part of the phone’s personality. Cut to just 5 days ago when the company cryptically tweets that they ‘Killed’ the Glyph Interface. Anyone who saw that tweet knew this wasn’t the death of the glyphs – it was its logical evolution.

Now, with its latest visual teaser, Nothing has pretty much confirmed what a bunch of us had on our minds for a while. The glyph interface’s unique light bars served their purpose, but there wasn’t much you could do to improve them beyond a point. With the Phone (3), the glyph bars officially get replaced by a ‘Glyph Matrix’, or a circular patch of LED lights that respond in a more visually meaningful way, forming patterns, and maybe even logos and text… but we have a massive doubt.

Designer: Nothing

AI Representation

The Phone (3) comes around a month from now, with the Nothing Event officially being slated for the 1st of July. All we know for now, however, is that this phone ditches the Glyph Interface, so it will probably look completely different from Phone (1) and (2). Nothing’s Phone (3a) Pro debuted in March, with the CMF Phone 2 Pro following soon after, and both of them were fairly advanced on a hardware front, with 3 cameras packed into the back… so logically, it would mean that Nothing’s flagship phone series would have to do a LOT to stand out against its more budget-friendly line-up. That distinction comes in the form of the Glyph Matrix.

AI Representation

I don’t know if that’s officially the term Nothing plans on using, but they teased the dot-matrix-style pattern system for a while, with this Project Arcanine teaser earlier this year (image below). In fact, Nothing’s logo itself is a dot-matrix font, so it sort of makes sense for the Phone (3) to embrace the matrix. However, it does raise an important question around wireless charging.

One can only assume that this matrix finds itself at the center of the phone (its circular design would imply that decision), but that would mean ditching the wireless charging coil that usually sits in that position. How Nothing plans on circumventing that conundrum is something only time will tell (or a random Reddit leak), but we’re here for it.

Come July 1st, a lot of our questions will be answered, as Nothing officially lifts the veil on its most anticipated phone for the year.