Admittedly, I’m not a huge TikToker, but I have plenty of coworkers and friends who spend every waking hour perusing the platform’s plethora of short videos. So when one of them notices a trend happening, I tend to stop what I’m doing and start researching. What I found was something I never expected: people are ditching their iPhones for Nothing phones.
After examining thousands of comments on videos like thisSome of the responses have genuinely surprised me, especially the top comments. “I’ll get a Nothing Phone when my iPhone turns off,” notes the top comment, followed by “Charlie XCX is a model for Nothing Phone.”
Just a few threads down say “I’m so tempted by the nothing phone”, “I have a nothing phone and it’s so good” and many people note that they still have iPhone 11 and 12 and don’t want to upgrade (or update iOS).
So I knew I had to do some research to get to the bottom of this. Was Nothing paying people to post comments on social media to spread the word about the brand? Do artists like Charlie XCX really influence public opinion about products that much? Does anyone reading these comments really know what nothing phone is it, anyway? The answers I found were surprising, but in the best way.
When you are a small emerging brand in a world where Samsung and Apple rule the roost, the only way to see real success is to employ some form of guerrilla warfare tactics. That means more than just launching an expensive marketing campaign or getting big-name influencers to represent your brand (and then going back to using iPhones in their free time). It means building a community of evangelists who will go to the corners of the Earth for you.
fashion business published an article on Nothing’s strategy in December 2025, detailing the ways the company has been playing to tiktok regular customers as your primary audience. In the physical world, the brand has been opening pop-ups and sponsoring concept stores, having models wear its products on catwalks in London and New York, and even clipping its headphones “to the straps of their bags at fashion parties,” Vogue notes.
Nothing has brought people like charlie smith to spearhead smart new marketing campaigns that tap into the company’s “irreverent, slightly punk attitude,” to use Smith’s own words. when he Nothing phone 4a Pro Launched, the company painted its own billboards and used them as a way to talk to users on social media in a way other brands ignore.
That’s why I’m not surprised that TikTok is seeing an increase in recommendations for the Nothing brand. And while I only have a vague idea of who Charlie XCX is (sorry, editors), the company late May advertising campaign Introducing her as an investor and brand ambassador is undoubtedly making more people aware of the brand’s existence.
But it’s not just social influence and subtle messages that drive the Nothing brand; It’s also the cost of their phones. Comments like “Sick of phones costing over $1000” are driving another clear trend among these posts. Nothing’s latest models are half the price and offer attractive designs and specs, plus better battery life and faster charging than an iPhone.
Nothing’s first phone, which was launched to mediocre reviews in 2022 and was priced under £400. nothing phone 2 It arrived the following year with slight improvements but, in the end, it wasn’t a very exciting release. It wasn’t until Nothing Telephone 2a It arrived in 2024 with an even cheaper price that people started to pay attention to. “Why would you buy anything else?” posited Harish Jonnalagadda of Android Central in your reviewand that feeling seems to remain strong today.
Beyond that, there’s something uniquely appealing about Nothing’s clear, neon-bright retro style. The company initially became known for its Glyph Interface, which illuminated a cartoon Apple logo on the back of the Nothing Phone (1). Now, its latest phones have ditched LED strips for a dot-matrix “display,” which debuted with the nothing phone 3.
True to the brand’s approach, the Glyph Matrix display on the back of that phone was very basic when it launched, but now it’s full with everything from virtual pets to music visualizers, and even a whole amazing Pokedex.
The company has also been at the forefront of AI-based devices such as Essential space, Essential Appsand Essential voiceall of whom have come up with interesting new ideas before the big guys get around to it. Essential Apps, in particular, has been a big hit with the community and is another way for Nothing to play with the group that will power the brand for years to come.
Will a Nothing Phone solve all iPhone users’ irritations with their phones? Probably not, but it seems to be addressing some pain points in everyday life. I have seen some posts about people. ditch its 2-year-old flagships for a Nothing Phonewhich seems crazy at first until you realize how much better the battery life is compared to Samsung or Apple flagships.
And there are other avenues that you may not consider either. Two years ago, a friend of mine was suffering from random chronic migraines and couldn’t figure out what was causing them. I suggested that it could be the PWM dimming on his iPhone causing it and sent him a Nothing Phone 2a to try, as the company employs more eye-friendly dimming methods. After two years without migraines, he has only used Nothing Phones since.
Whether or not the company’s latest marketing direction continues is anyone’s guess, but the brand has made real inroads in India, the UK and the US lately, so it’s clearly appealing to people who want something different from the usual suspects. Have you tried a Nothing Phone? Let us know what you think in the comments.
