ChatGPT is coming to Nothing’s earbuds

Nothing has announced that it plans to more deeply integrate ChatGPT with its smartphones and earbuds. The move will give the company’s customers quicker access to the service. “Through the new integration, users with the latest Nothing OS and ChatGPT installed on their Nothing phones will be able to pinch-to-speak to the most popular consumer AI tool in the world directly from Nothing earbuds,” the company wrote in a blog post. And yes, the new Nothing Ear and Ear (a) are both supported.

Spokesperson Jane Nho told me by email that “gradual rollout of the integration will commence on April 18th with Phone 2 followed by Phone 1 and Phone 2A in the coming weeks.” Once the update lands, you’ll be able to query ChatGPT using the company’s earbuds. That makes it sound like you’ll be able to select ChatGPT as your preferred digital assistant for Nothing’s buds. How smooth will this work in practice? We’ll soon find out.

Either way, the company’s plans don’t stop there. The blog post says “Nothing will also improve the Nothing smartphone user experience in Nothing OS by embedding system-level entry points to ChatGPT, including screenshot sharing and Nothing-styled widgets.”

But Nothing’s ChatGPT strategy revolves around its existing devices; Carl Pei’s startup isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel with an additional piece of hardware — not yet, anyway. And it’s not forcing this integration down anyone’s throat. If you don’t have ChatGPT on your phone, your experience won’t be changing any.