Nothing founder Carl Pei sees a future where the AI-powered operating system on a phone removes the need for apps.
Instead of using lots of apps, the phone OS will know what you want and be able to provide those services instead.
While Nothing is preparing to launch the Nothing Phone (3) – now confirmed for July 2025 – company founder and CEO Carl Pei has revealed his vision for smartphones of the future. And the biggest takeaway is that he sees a future without smartphone apps.
Speaking in an interview with Wired, the former OnePlus chief laid out his vision where AI actually does something useful.
Criticising the current deployment of AI by rivals, Pei said: “We all know it's the next big thing, and everyone is trying to figure out exactly what's important there… it is not about working quickly to create something and shoving AI into it to tick a box.”
That’s the pattern that we’re seeing from smartphone brands currently, all creating something with an AI label that’s not very useful. Turning the focus on Apple, Pei added: “Last year, they told a very big story about Apple Intelligence. Now, a year later, it's not much more than some generated emojis.”
Carl Pei went on to detail how he sees a future where AI is highly personalised and agentic, resulting in a big change to how we use our phones: “I believe that in the future, the entire phone will only have one app – and that will be the OS. The OS will know its user well and will be optimised for that person.”
The idea here is that rather than opening an app to access a particular bit of information, the AI-powered OS will be able to do it for you – that’s what the “agentic” part of the equation refers to. On one hand, that might be retrieving a workout playlist when you’re heading out for a run.
But on the other, a phone OS with increased intelligence could use the services currently provided by apps to create automations for you, seamlessly, and without the step-by-step process we currently go through on our phones.
For example, creating a routine to turn off the lights when you go to bed currently requires working with an app like Apple Home, Alexa or Google Home. But with an agentic smartphone OS that knows you, the phone OS could do this without you having to go through all the steps.
“The ultimate benefit to the user is that they will spend less time doing boring things and more time on what they care about,” said Pei.
While the Nothing boss accepts that it will take from seven to 10 years to realise that vision, he also concedes that people love apps, so weaning them off those apps will take some time.
Nothing still believes that the smartphone is the most important device in our lives and the rise of secondary products like the device Jony Ive is thought to be designing for OpenAI or the new Android XR Glasses isn’t going to change that.
But to reach the ambitious point where a phone OS can do everything, without the need to open an app raises a lot of questions. If a company like Google, Amazon or Apple hold the keys to some of those services, will a third-party be able to access and control it?
