Nothing Announces "iMessage on Android"
Nothing Announces "iMessage on Android"
Here at Nothing, we’re building a world where tech is fun again. Remember a time where every new product made you excited? We’re bringing that back.
"Nothing Chats, powered by Sunbird, allows you to directly message other phone users from your Nothing phone via blue bubbles."
I don't think this solves the problem, but it is a step in the right direction.
Would not say this implementation is a step in the right direction at all. They’re logging into your Apple account through a Mac Mini.
They're logging into your account with a Mac VM*
I'm sure if it picks up any amount in of momentum, Apple will kill it, along with Beeper.
Why do people care about blue bubbles?
I've never owned an Apple device or dealt with iMessage chats before but my understanding is that Android users and their blue bubbles don't have access to some of the features of iMessage and that messes with the chat for everyone or something. Also LUL Android user is too poor/not cool enough to own an iPhone. That's what I've gathered from Americans on the internet anyway.
This would not be a problem, but Apple purposefully and maliciously degrades the messaging experience by compressing the shit out of any MMS sent to (or received from) non-apple devices. Even non-multimedia stuff like group chats or reactions are being broken. On purpose. To piss you off just enough to maybe consider switching to their closed proprietary ecosystem.
It may not work on you and me, but you'd be surprised how effective it is on young impressionable teens who are under extreme peer pressure by their stupid "friends" who are shallow enough to care about the chat bubble colors. My 16 y/o son was quite happy with his Pixel 5a, but was literally bullied into switching to an iphone. He spent a decent chunk of his summer job's earnings to buy a used 12 mini and a replacement battery for it. Now he can't sideload apps, or rearrange his home screen, or a myriad of other things that he's gotten used to on Android, but at least his bubbles are the "right" color.
It hurts the ability to send multi media. Specifically video just can't be sent over MMS if you want to do more than listen.
WTF are Blue Bubbles?
If you want blue bubbles so much, use Signal.
Or green bubbles, or red bubbles, pink bubbles, multicoloured bubbles
I currently use purple bubbles hee hee
How far would you go to conform for something as mundane as chat bubble colors? How soulless will your life have to be to demand something like this?
Log in with your existing Apple ID username or create a new account to start sending and receiving blue bubbles.
So I need an apple ID to use this?
Pass.
If you’re a Phone (2) user in one of the select countries where Nothing Chats is available, you can download the messaging app from the Google Play Store.
So it only works in a few countries?
Pass.
And it only works on one OEM's phones?
Massive Pass.
I recommend getting beeper it's similar to sunbird although it is paid but they do open source all of their back end infrastructure. Beeper is essentially just a matrix client for a bunch of different chat service bridges.
Cheers for the heads up.
beeper does look interesting but I am weary of sign up and we will tell you when you can join type apps.
And this rings a few alarm bells for me:
if you send a message from Beeper to a friend on WhatsApp, the message is encrypted on your Beeper client, sent to the Beeper web service, which decrypts and re-encrypts the message with WhatsApp's proprietary encryption protocol.
I would love for this to work but that alone has a host of issues around third party trust.
New European legislation is coming into effect in 2024 and will force iMessage and WhatsApp to expose an interoperable end-to-end-encrypted API. Our servers are located in Europe, and we will switch to this open interface as soon as it is ready.
Sadly, not being in the EU means I will likely pass on this but is sounds great for EU residents when the above is implemented.
I have absolutely zero confidence that Apple will allow this to exist once they get enough wind of it.
But what are they going to do about it?
Apple: "I play Lawyer in attack position."
It's free for Apple honestly, just for unauthorized use of their trademark alone.
I posted this in another technology fediverse but think it is relevant here also:
Ars Technica covered this much better
Basically, the company providing the service is shady and should not be trusted.
Blue bubbles? I'm sorry, I don't speak American.
Given how aggressive Apple is in protecting their walled garden, I don't expect this to survive the litigation. Apple tends to ignore individual hackers (look at hackintoshes) but businesses making money off unauthorized use of their APIs don't last very long before the tidal wave of lawyers come.
Maybe, but seeing the recent scrutiny they have had for not allowing sideloading of apps, killing this might actually push legislation against it. As an android user, I wouldn't use this app even if I had access to it because it's not secure and because I don't give a shit about blue bubbles.
Maybe in the EU, but I would have little hope for the US market. The US has been astonishingly slow to take adverse action against companies within their own borders for the past 25 years. Believe me, I hope Apple and Google get what is coming to them, but I won't hold my breath.
The company behind the feature Nothing is advertising, Sunbird, claims that their solution preserves iMessage's end-to-end encryption. They also claim they have figured out how to handle thousands of accounts on a single Mac. Both problems Beeper hasn't been able to solve.
Unfortunately they have failed to provide any details about how they accomplish these things, which has Ars Technica feeling pretty skeptical about the whole endeavor.
This makes me roll my eyes. From the Sunbird faq:
Will the app [sunbird] be open source?
Some of the messaging community believes that software that is open source is more secure. It is our view that it is not. The more visibility there is into the infrastructure and code, the easier it is to penetrate it. By design, open source software is distributed in nature. There is no central authority to ensure quality and maintenance and by putting that responsibility on Sunbird, development would not be feasible. Open source vulnerabilities typically stem from poorly written code that leave gaps, which attackers can use to carryout malicious activities.
To help satisfy our own ambitious goals of providing total privacy and security, we are currently undergoing a third party audit that will validate our security, encryption and data policies and plan on receiving ISO 27001 certification after launch.
Sure Jan.
edit: source: https://www.sunbirdapp.com/ at the bottom
The reddest of red flags.
Open source vulnerabilities typically stem from poorly written code
Yeah, because paid programmers never write bad closed-source code…
I wonder how long they've been working on this integration and i bet they didn't see this coming: Apple says iPhones will support RCS in 2024 . I mean it's technically not the same product. RCS will replace sms/mms and "Nothing Chats" is an iMessage back door (?).
I think it's innovative if it works well
Only available for Phone (2) users in the US, Canada, UK, and EU at this time.