Essential is Nothing's AI-native software ecosystem and core intelligence layer built into Nothing OS. Originally acquired as a defunct smartphone brand from Android co-creator, Andy Rubin, Nothing has repurposed Essential into an integrated suite of productivity tools including Essential Space, Essential Apps, Essential Search and Essential Voice.

Essential Products Inc, better known as Essential, was an American tech company founded by Android co-creator Andy Rubin in November 2015. After releasing only one smartphone to the public in 2017 - the Essential Phone (PH-1), the company shut down in February 2020 after finding no clear path to deliver their next product called Project Gem.^[1,2]

In early 2021, shortly after announcing the formation of Nothing, Carl Pei and team acquired Essential’s trademarks, logo, domain and brand identity, primarily to secure the name. The acquisition did not include any of Essential's technology or patents.^[3]

In September 2025, alongside the release of Essential Apps & Playground, Nothing unveiled a new website, essential.com, advertising Essential features alongside a promotional video and a roadmap timeline pointing at AI-native devices expected in H2 2026 and an “Essential OS” expected in early 2028.^[4] In a quote, Nothing said:^[5]

Essential marks the first step in Nothing’s next chapter: turning foundational AI into hyper-personalised experiences that help in daily life, while breaking away from the rigid and walled gardens that define today’s smartphones - where devices adapt to people, not the other way around.

The acquisition was completed around 6 January 2021 when it was registered with the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO), though some filings trace back to November 2020.^[6]

Nothing CEO, Carl Pei, stated that the name “Essential” was once under consideration for Nothing’s company name, but was ultimately rejected to avoid confusion and association with the defunct brand.^[7]

Nothing’s usage of the Essential brand and name was initially low, but as of 2025 has rapidly increased.

Essential Space is Nothing's AI powered hub for notes, ideas and inspirations, which debuted with the Essential Key on Phone (3a) series in March 2025. It allows users to capture voice, text notes and screenshots using the dedicated Essential Key, which are then intelligently processed and stored for later reference. If a capture is recognised as a task or an event, information such as the date, time and venue are automatically extracted and reminders can be triggered.

Alongside the Nothing Launcher update version 3.3.4 released on 4 July 2025, Nothing launched Essential Search, replacing the traditional app drawer search and optionally, the search bar widget.^[8] Essential Search functions as an all-in-one search tool, displaying a list of results from installed apps, files, Nothing Gallery, settings menus, widgets, contacts, and messages. It also contains a quick “search with” menu, which opens the user's search query directly in supported apps, such as Chrome, Google, Maps and YouTube.

It also comes with a dedicated Essential Search button, where users can ask a question directly in the search bar and get a direct, summarised answer powered by AI, without leaving the search screen. It can handle responses contextual questions such as the current weather and local restaurants, as well as more complex search-based questions such as “Why is the sky blue”.^[9,10]

Nothing announced Essential Apps in September 2025 - an AI based platform that allows regular community members to create their own nothing_os widgets using natural language, without the need for any coding knowledge or experience. Essential Apps launched in an alpha state and required users to join a waitlist for early access.

Once an Essential App was developed and tested, it could be submitted for review and uploaded to the Nothing Playground, a first-party platform for community members to share creations.

On 23 April 2026, Essential announced Essential Voice - an intelligent voice transcription feature which turns regular speech into clear, ready-to-use writing, removing filler words and restructuring thoughts and phrases for a more clean, professional output. It also delivers automatic formatting (such as numbering and bullet points), language translation options, and the ability to add personal word shortcut mappings for commonly used phrases.^[11]

The feature is activated with a software button on the bottom left of the keyboard, which is enabled by default, but can be disabled in Nothing's Intelligence Toolkit, or by pressing and holding the Essential Key while the keyboard is active.^[12] Essential Voice is powered by Google Gemini 3 Flash and requires an internet connection for voice processing, though the generated text isn't stored on its servers.^[13]

The Nothing News widget was rebranded to Essential News in 2025, which also featured on CMF Watch 3 Pro.

Although Nothing had owned the @essential X handle since the acquisition. Their first post from the account was on 17 July 2025, where they posted “print(“Hello, World!”) 👾”.^[14]