Nothing Essential Apps Builder Review: Is Vibe Coding Useful?
Is Nothing's Essential Apps Builder the future of AI or just hype? We tested the 'vibe coding' feature on Nothing Phone (2) to see if it's worth the download.
By Team Gimmie
Updated August 27, 2026
Nothing’s AI Ambitions: A Glimpse of the Future, or Just a Fancy Paperweight for Your Gifter?
We’ve all been there: staring at a smartphone screen cluttered with a hundred red notification dots, feeling like our devices own us rather than the other way around. Nothing, the London-based tech upstart known for its transparent designs and flashing Glyph lights, claims to have the antidote. They’ve been touting an AI-native operating system—a piece of software that learns your habits and gets out of your way.
The first real taste of this future is the Essential Apps Builder. It’s built on a concept Nothing calls vibe coding. For the uninitiated, vibe coding is the tech world’s latest buzzword for creating software using natural language. Instead of writing thousands of lines of complex code, you simply describe what you want—the look, the feel, the function—and the AI attempts to build it for you. It sounds like magic, and for a tech-forward friend who loves to tinker, it’s a tantalizing pitch. But after living with it for a week, the reality is a bit more complicated.
The Promise of a Personal Phone
The core philosophy here is actually quite beautiful. Nothing wants to move away from the rigid grid of icons we’ve been using since 2007. They envision a phone that intelligently surfaces the information you need exactly when you need it. Think of it as a digital butler that doesn’t wait for you to ask for a tray; it just knows you’re thirsty.
If you are currently carrying a Nothing Phone (2), Phone (2a), or the newer Phone (2a) Plus, you can already start playing with these tools. For someone who spends their weekends on Reddit threads or tweaking custom launchers, this software is a playground. It’s the ultimate gift for the person who always wants to be on the bleeding edge of what’s next.
When the Vibe Meets the Void
However, as a product reviewer, I have to look past the marketing. While vibe coding is an amusing novelty, it’s currently lacking the substance to be truly useful. To test the limits, I tried to build a Morning Surf & Caffeine Tracker. I told the AI I wanted a simple interface that showed me the current swell height at my local beach and a one-tap button to log my morning espresso.
