One Button Sets These Headphones Apart
Nothing launched its first wireless headset, the Nothing Headphone (1), on Tuesday, July 1. The appearance of this Bluetooth headset is very strange and does make you ponder its existence. However, that’s not the most interesting thing about the Nothing Headphone (1). No, it’s the famous “button”, and a physical button at that, which makes it the Nothing Headphone (1)’s best selling point. This button activates a relatively unknown but extremely useful AI feature that could persuade you to purchase this Bluetooth headset.
The Nothing Headphone (1) has everything a very good wireless headphone needs. The audio signature was developed in collaboration with KEF, a globally recognized leader in high-fidelity audio. The headphones support the Bluetooth LDAC codec for sound transmission in HD. Its battery life of 35 hours with Active Noise Cancellation enabled and 80 hours when disabled is very respectable. With its asking price of $299, it is very attractive compared to the much more expensive AirPods Max (review) or the Sony WH-1000XM6 (review).
All of these are excellent. However, it’s one of the three physical buttons on the Nothing Headphone (1) that interest me the most. The function behind this button almost justifies the purchase of the Nothing headset, or at least that’s what I think.
There’s more than meets the ears
The Nothing Headphone (1) deliberately dispensed with the usual touch-sensitive controls. Instead, there are three physical controls: a roller (wheel), a paddle (paddle), and button (knob). You can use the roller to control the volume and media playback. The paddle is used to change tracks. The button, the only one you should really be interested in, serves as a quick-access button. One of the shortcuts you can assign to this button is for the Nothing app’s Essential Space.
Essential Space is an Android app launched by Nothing in March 2025. It’s difficult to summarize what this app is all about in one sentence. It’s basically a gallery for screenshots, an app for notes, and a to-do list in a single app. The whole thing is augmented with AI functions. I know, that means another AI app. But you’re wrong on this count of it being the same old as Essential Space is different.
When you take a screenshot or a voice memo with your smartphone, it is automatically saved in Essential Space. The app can then create to-do lists, analyze your screenshots, and link them to the time, date, and location data. This also works with Voice Memos. You can hold a mini-monologue in the morning where you describe everything in detail that you need to do for the day, and the app then summarizes the entire shebang in a to-do list with goals that you can tick off as soon as they are completed.
With the “button” of the Nothing Headphone (1), you can launch Essential Space. When I’m listening to music or watching a movie or series, I often have ideas and thoughts that run through my head. The fact that I can record them directly via the Headphone (1) and then organize them and turn them into something productive and/or creative is great.
The only catch is that this shortcut only works with a Nothing smartphone. You also have to own a Nothing account to use the Essential Space app. However, exclusive features for headphones and headsets are not new. Apple, Samsung, and Xiaomi all do this, but I found Nothing’s “all-in-one” approach to AI features with Essential Space to be very interesting. More interesting, indeed, than a sterile and superficial debate about the design of the Nothing Headphone (1), which is sometimes described as ugly, sometimes as cool.
What do you think about this feature of the Nothing Headphone (1)? Do you think I’m exaggerating and that this feature is far too niche to be interesting? Have you tried the Essential Space app yet?