Everything on my new phone, the Nothing 3(a), and all the basic steps I took when I set it up.
I don’t know what it is, but I really enjoy having a new phone to configure. I recently acquired the Nothing Phone 3(a) to replace my broken Xiaomi Mi12T Pro, and it’s been awesome.
As soon as I turned it on, I knew it would be quite a treat to my eyes. The clean android experience that NothingOS has to offer is something I was missing since I had to switch to Xiaomi’s HyperOS because of my Poco F4 failing on me
Every time, it feels like a challenge, but one of the cool ones, where I try to stay as minimal as possible, installing as few apps as I can, logging it to the essential accounts only.
That threshold grows every time though, becoming a bit of a behemot, as I have to install a banking app, or as I log into another email address. But I still try, I slowly realize what programs I use less, and which ones I don’t really care about that much. I delete accounts for some videogame or some random service I no longer use. And at the same time, I add a new more grown-up account, for whatever alternative shopping website I choose to try instead of Amazon or the big online shops in my country.
So, setting up my phone and what’s on it went more or less like this:
Do the basic Android setup, don’t login to anything and say no to tracking and such
Go to Settings, developer options, set animation speed to 0.5
Enable 3-button naviation
Go to Chrome (the Android default, unfortunately), look up Droid-ify and install
Via Droid-ify, install:
KeepassXC for password management
Syncthing-Fork to sync files between devices
Fennec to browser the web
Gramophone for local music
Metrolist for YT Music
Tubular for YouTube
Otraku for Anilist
Fossify Gallery, Contacts and Calendar
Stealth for Reddit
Binary Eyes for barcodes
Conversations for XMPP
Sunup for Unified Push Notifications
Markor for Markdown files
Material Files for file management
Nextcloud for file storage and DAV sync
DAVx5 to sync contacts and calendar events from Nextcloud
OpenKeyChain to import my keys, and configure K-9 Mail encryption
Tusky for the Fediverse
Arcticons because line-based icons rule.
KISS Launcher is best
Set Arcticons as the system-wide icon pack (NothingOS lets me do that!)
Setup KISS Launcher as default by importing the configuration (a json string, super portable!) on my new phone
Setup Syncthing and sync my “Backups” folder, which contains my Keepass database, and backups for AntennaPod, Tubular, Threema, K-9 Mail, among other apps
Sync other folders via the same method, for pictures, music, etc.
Restore app backups where possible.
Via Fennec, download and install some apps:
ActivityWatch for app usage tracking
Mihon to read manga
Aniyomi to watch anime
SimpleScrobbler to scrobble to Listenbrainz
Login to certain websites such as Backloggd, Letterboxd, Bookrastinating, Anilist, GitHub, etc
Set up an empty Google account because I need Play Store nowadays
Disable sync, and as many things as possible
Via Play Store, install:
Banking apps because I’m an adult now
Signal and WhatsApp, migrating data from previous phone or backup
Steam because of Steam Guard
Proton Mail which I use for some things
YouVersion Bible because it’s the only one with all the versions I use
Snapseed because it’s still the best photo editor
Shopping apps because I am irresponsible
Nintendo Parental Controls to track my Nintendo Switch usage
Brawl Stars, the only online game remaining
Discord, because communities there are nice sometimes
Delete or disable bloat, in this case it was already minimal, thankfully
And everything is pretty much done!
Related posts
I’ve written a couple posts in the past about similar things, in case you want to check them out after this! (Or check the android tag)
What’s on my Phone (Fall 2023) - A much more in-depth look at the apps on my phone back then, I wasn’t feeling like going as hard for this post, so you can take a look at this one if you want more.
New Phone Experience - My initial experience using my Poco F4, the phone I had before the 12T Pro, and that I actually rather liked!
My Home Screen (2024) - A pretty in-depth look at everything in my homescreen. Including app shortcuts via gestures, invisible folders and the like, using Nova Launcher at the time.
Default Apps (2025) - Another list, including both desktop and mobile programs that I use by default.
When I ordered some watches from Casio's official website, things didn't go well, so I ended up exchanging emails with their staff and worrying too much about it
