Nothing launches Essential voice speech-to-text transcription feature

London-based consumer tech brand Nothing has unveiled a new software feature called Essential Voice, extending its Essential AI tools into speech. Designed to make communication more natural and efficient, Essential Voice transforms spoken words into clean, ready-to-use text, bridging the gap between traditional typing and dictation.

The launch highlights Nothing’s ambition to create a voice-first interface that adapts to how people think, live, and communicate.Typing remains the dominant way of interacting with smartphones, but it is far slower than speaking. On average, people type around 36 words per minute on a phone, while they can comfortably speak at 150 words per minute — more than four times faster. Traditional dictation tools often produce fragmented transcripts filled with filler words like “um” and “uh.”

Essential Voice addresses this by automatically cleaning up speech, delivering polished text that reads like finished writing rather than raw transcription.

Nothing voice: Key features

Essential Voice introduces several practical tools:* Auto-Correction: Enhances clarity and structure by removing filler words and tidying up sentences.* Personal Mappings: Lets users create custom voice shortcuts for words, links, templates, and repeated phrases.

* Translation Agent: Enables users to speak in one language and have the text written in another.* 100+ Languages Supported: Offers wide language coverage with auto-detection and regional variants such as Latin American Spanish or Simplified Chinese.Users can activate Essential Voice by long-pressing the Essential Key or enabling it directly on the keyboard, making it accessible wherever text input is needed.Essential Voice is launching first on Phone (3) and Phone (4a) Pro, with support for Phone (4a) coming shortly. Future updates will introduce context awareness, allowing Essential Voice to adapt to different scenarios — whether composing a message, drafting a work email, or performing a search. Nothing also plans to expand the feature across its ecosystem of smart products, positioning Essential Voice as the foundation of a voice-first interface.