Nothing’s new AI voice tool could make your keyboard obsolete

The Nothing 4a proudly graces our list of the best smartphones, and now the company has just unveiled a new AI-powered transcription tool – called Nothing Essential Voice – that promises to change how you message on your phone.

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In essence, the feature is designed to make generating messages far easier and smoother than tapping away on an on-screen keyboard. Voice dictation has, of course, been around for years, and there’s certainly no shortage of AI solutions available. So what does Nothing’s announcement bring to the party?

For a start, instead of transcribing every “um”, “uh”, and awkward pause, it cleans up your speech as you talk, stripping out filler words and tightening your sentences into something that reads more like you intended. It can also automatically format what you say into structured output, lists, steps, or neatly organised notes.

Nothing Essential Voice also supports more than 100 languages with auto-detection, and can translate on the fly – meaning you could speak in English and have your words instantly typed out in another language. You can also pick regional variants, which is a nice touch if you care about spelling and phrasing differences.

Elsewhere, you can create custom shortcuts for things you say often – whether that’s fixing specific capitalisation, or attaching useful info to keywords. Mention a favourite restaurant, for example, and Essential Voice can automatically insert its address and a link.

Nothing is also keen to stress privacy. Essential Voice only activates when you choose to use it, and doesn’t listen in the background. Audio is encrypted and processed on Nothing’s servers, with the resulting text sent back to your device – and the company says recordings aren’t stored.

It’s too early to say if Nothing Essential Voice lives up to the hype, but if you want to try it out for yourself, Essential Voice is rolling out now on the Nothing Phone 3, with support for the Phone 4a Pro expected later this month, followed by the Phone 4a in early May.

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Esat Dedezade Contributor

About

Esat has been a gadget fan ever since his tiny four-year-old brain was captivated by a sound-activated dancing sunflower. From there it was a natural progression to a Sega Mega Drive, a brief obsession with hedgehogs, and a love for all things tech. After 7 years as a writer and deputy editor for Stuff, Esat ventured out into the corporate world, spending three years as Editor of Microsoft's European News Centre. Now a freelance writer, his appetite for shiny gadgets has no bounds. Oh, and like all good human beings, he's very fond of cats.