Nothing Phone 1 users are receiving access to Nothing OS 1.5 beta, as part of the company’s Open Beta programme. The London-based smartphone and electronics manufacturer commenced closed beta testing for the Android-13-based update on November 30, and promised to release an open beta version for a larger set of users in two weeks’ time. Users who do not want to try out the beta version may have to wait for a few months to get the Android 13-based Nothing OS 1.5 stable update, which is expected to be released in early 2023, according to the company.

The Nothing Phone 1 maker announced the launch of its Open Beta programme for the Android 13-based Nothing OS 1.5 update via Twitter. The final release was previously confirmed to arrive in “early 2023”.

According to the company’s official blog post, the latest Android 13-based update provides users of the Nothing Phone 1 with a 50 percent increase in app loading speed. The update also introduces multi-language support for third-party apps, and adds a new weather app featuring the company’s customised Nothing UI.

Other additions include a new QR code scanner button in the Quick Settings menu, a clipboard preview feature that allows text copied by users to appear in the bottom corner of the screen which may be edited before pasting, a live caption feature that automatically generates captions on detected speech audio, and a “self-repair” feature that clears unused cached and expired system dumps automatically.

Meanwhile, other UI changes on the latest update include the introduction of more colour schemes to Android 13’s Material You design that the Nothing OS is based on which will allow users to match third-party app colours to their wallpaper, a redesigned media control and volume control menu, and a new UI for light notifications and Google Game Dashboard that allows for a smoother experience when Game Mode is activated on the Nothing Phone 1.

Users will also be able to close active background apps more easily with an option to clear apps now being made available on the notification center, according to Nothing.

Nothing has also introduced Android 13’s privacy upgrades to its latest Nothing OS 1.5 beta update which encompasses an improved photo picker, a notifications permissions feature that lets users control which apps can push notifications, and a media permissions feature that allows users to group types of media such as photos and videos, music and audio, together.

Nothing, however, added that there will be more features to come on the fully-stable version of the Nothing OS 1.5 which is expected to arrive early next year.

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