Nothing Phone (3) VS Signal
Verdict BUY IT BUY IT
The Reality Coverage of the Phone (3)'s camera design was real but modest in scale — The Verge and CNET both ran pieces calling out the unusual camera arrangement, and CNET's photo feature was positive about the look. None of this generated the kind of large-scale discussion or debate that Nothing's marketing tone implies; on Hacker News specifically, engagement across every Phone (3) story topped out at 5 points, meaning the tech-enthusiast crowd that engages with Hacker News mostly shrugged. As of 2026-09-11, the Signal-Android GitHub repo has 29,311 stars and 6,881 forks, with a commit as recent as today — a large, actively maintained codebase, not an abandoned open-source gesture. 499 open issues is proportionate to a project of this scale and real-world usage.
SHORT ANSWER
Nothing Phone (3): The Nothing Phone (3)'s unconventional camera design is real and drew positive coverage, but engagement has been modest rather than a major industry talking point.
Signal: Signal's Android app is a genuinely large, actively maintained open-source project — 29,311 GitHub stars and a commit as recent as today, not just a privacy marketing claim with no real engineering behind it.