- A Reddit user has managed to remap the Essential Key on his Nothing Phone (3a) Pro.
- The button is locked to launch the Essential Space app on the devices, with no option to customize the control.
- The user used ADB and Key Mapper to use the button to turn on the torch on his device.
If you’re even a little active in the tech space, then you may have heard about the Essential Key, the new hardware button in Nothing’s latest Phone (3a) series (review). Ever since the launch, people have questioned whether we can remap this new button to perform other actions, but the company doesn’t offer any such option to do so. But that doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibilities.
The key acts as a shortcut to take screenshots, and you can hold it to record voice memos. This is shared with the new Essential Space app, where this data is processed with the help of AI and turned into a task or reminder. Think of it as a Reminder app with extra steps. As you can guess, it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
However, Nothing hasn’t provided any option to remap this button. So, Reddit user u/acruzjumper decided to do it himself. With the help of some ADB commands, he managed to make the Essential key do his bidding. He disabled the Essential Space app via ADB. And then used a Key Mapper to remap the Essential key to turn on the torch on his Nothing Phone (3a) Pro.
We tested it and we were able to map the Camera app to open with our Nothing Phone (3a) Pro.
How to Remap the Essential Key on Nothing Phone (3a)
It’s something you can learn to do yourself if you know even a bit about using ADB to uninstall apps. Here’s a quick guide if you want to try it out on your Nothing Phone (3a) or (3a) Pro. We won’t cover all the basics here, but you’ll need ADB platform tools installed on your laptop and USB debugging enabled on your smartphone. Once you have secured that, then follow these steps:
- Connect your Phone (3a) device with a USB cable to your PC or laptop.
- On your phone, change the connection mode to “File Transfer (MTP)” mode.
- Now, open the directory with ADB platform tools, and launch the Terminal here.
- In Terminal, type “adb devices” and then select Allow in the pop-up that shows on your smartphone.
- Type the following command:
adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.nothing.ntessentialspace
- After this, enter this:
adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.nothing.ntessentialrecorder
- This disables the Essential key actions. Now, install the Key Mapper from the Play Store.
- Launch the app, allow all permissions, and tap on the plus + icon.
- Pick Record trigger, and single-press the Essential Key. It should show “unknown keycode 0”.
- Now tap on the Actions tab at the top, and select Add action.
- Choose the action you want to trigger when you press the button.
- Once selected, tap on the save icon at the bottom right.
If you want to learn how to do this without a PC, then you can take a look at this Reddit thread. While this trick works, we hope Nothing also gets the idea and offers a remap option for the button later. Especially given the fact that they are already getting negative reactions for adding a monthly limit to Essential Space usage.
They also have plans to make their new AI feature paid. And in the midst of all this, people would prefer to use the extra button for something else. Nothing has mentioned that Essential Space is still in early development. So, the full experience will roll out with the launch of Nothing Phone 3.
Even if they do decide to give in and allow us to customize the physical button, it is unlikely before the launch of their next flagship device. What are your thoughts on the topic? Let us know in the comments below.
