I'm admittedly not much of a TikToker, but I've got lots of coworkers and friends who spend every waking hour perusing the platform's bevy of short-form videos. So when one of them notices a trend happening, I tend to drop what I'm doing and start digging. What I found was something I never expected: People are ditching their iPhones for Nothing Phones.
After sifting through thousands of comments in videos like this one, I've been genuinely surprised by some of the responses, especially the top comments. "I'm getting a Nothing Phone when my iPhone dies," notes the top comment, followed by "Charlie XCX is a model for Nothing Phone soooo."
Just a few threads down from that reads "I’m so tempted by the nothing phone," "I have a nothing phone and it's so good," and plenty of people noting that they're still on iPhone 11s and 12s and don't want to upgrade (or update iOS).
So I knew I had to do a little digging to get to the bottom of this. Was Nothing paying people to plant comments on social media to get the word out about the brand? Do artists like Charlie XCX really influence public opinion on products this much? Will anyone reading these comments actually know what a Nothing Phone is, anyway? The answers I found were surprising, but in the very best ways.
Social media guerrilla warfare
When you're a small startup brand in a world where Samsung and Apple rule the roost, the only way to see real success is by employing a 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 go 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.
Vogue Business published an article on Nothing's strategy in December 2025, detailing the ways the company has been playing to TikTok regulars as its core audience. In the physical world, the brand has been opening pop-up locations and sponsoring concept stores, having fashion models carry its products on the runway in London and New York, and even hooking its headphones "around bagstraps at fashion parties," Vogue notes.
Nothing has brought in people like Charlie Smith to lead clever new marketing campaigns that play to the company's "irreverent, slightly punk attitude," to use Smith's own words. When the Nothing Phone 4a Pro launched, the company graffitied its own billboards and used this as a way to speak to users on social media in a way other brands are ignoring.
So it's little surprise to me that TikTok is seeing an uptick in recommendations for the Nothing brand. And while I only have a vague idea who Charlie XCX is (sorry, editors), the company's late-May ad campaign featuring her as an investor and brand ambassador is certainly making more people aware of the brand's existence.
But it's not just social influence and subtle messaging driving the Nothing brand; it's also the cost of its phones. Comments like "Sick of phones costing 1000 plus dollars" are driving another clear trend among these posts. Nothing's most recent models cost half that and offer compelling designs and specs, plus better battery life and faster charging than an iPhone.
Nothing's first phone, which launched to middling reviews in 2022 and carried a sub-£400 price. The Nothing Phone 2 came the following year with slight refinements but, ultimately, wasn't a very exciting release. It wasn't until the Nothing Phone 2a came along in 2024 with an even more budget-friendly price that people started paying attention. "Why would you buy anything else?" posited Android Central's Harish Jonnalagadda in his review, and that sentiment seems to be holding strong today.
Beyond that, there's something uniquely appealing about Nothing's transparent, neon-glowing retro style. The company initially became known for its Glyph Interface, which lit up a caricature of the 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 bare-bones as heck when it launched, but is now filled with everything from virtual pets to music visualizers, and even a whole flippin' Pokedex.
The company has also been at the forefront of AI-based gadgets like Essential Space, Essential Apps, and Essential Voice, all of which have debuted interesting new ideas before the big guys get around to doing it. Essential Apps, in particular, has been a huge hit with the community, and is yet another way Nothing is playing to the group that's going to drive the brand for years to come.
Will a Nothing Phone solve every iPhone user's irritations with their phones? Probably not, but it does appear to be mending some pain points in everyday life. I've seen some posts about people dumping their 2-year-old flagships for a Nothing Phone, which 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 you may not consider, as well. Two years ago, a friend of mine suffered from random, chronic migraines and couldn't figure out what was causing them. I suggested it could be the PWM dimming on her iPhone causing it and sent her a Nothing Phone 2a to try since the company employs more eye-friendly dimming methods. After two years of being migraine-free, she has only used Nothing Phones since then.
Whether the company's latest marketing direction continues to stick is anyone's best guess, but the brand has made real headway into India, the UK, and the U.S. 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.
