Nothing announces Nothing Chats, a messaging app that brings blue bubbles to Android
Carl Pei is blue-bubbling the green bubbles, or so is his mission with his company's new product — Nothing Chats. Nothing Chats is a new app developed by Nothing in partnership with Sunbird, another messaging app that launched earlier this year aiming to bring iMessage to Android.
"I don't think anybody else in our industry would do it," Pei boldly stated in the announcement video below. Admitting that Apple CEO, Tim Cook, may at some point watch said video and not be pleased at what he saw. Yet, Pei is not dissuaded and is determined to break down the barriers that separate Android and Apple messaging app users — a barrier that not even Google has been able to touch with their "Get the message" pressure campaign.
Nothing Chats' blue bubbles | Source - Nothing
Meanwhile, Nothing is leveraging the fact that there is already a conversation about iMessage and blue bubbles, and adding its two cents in the form of another messaging app that may or may not replace the stock messaging app on Nothing OS. Although not yet available, once launched the app will be available via the Play Store only for Phone (2) users in the US, Canada, UK, and EU. It is unknown if it will become available for the Phone (1) or other Android phones in the future.
Nothing Chats is currently in Beta and adding more features as things progress. As of this announcement the app supports many of the native features you get with iMessage, such as live typing indicators, full-res media sharing, and group chats. However, message reactions & replies, as well as read receipts, are still being worked on.
Nothing Chats' current features | Source - Nothing"
As great as this all sounds, there is always the matter of privacy when it comes to messaging apps. Nothing's website states that all you need to do after downloading the app is to log in with your existing Apple ID (or create a new one) and then once you're set you can start enjoying your blue bubbles. The company claims that, since the app is built on Sunbird's platform, all messages are end-to-en encrypted. In fact, according to Nothing's claims, Chats messages are delivered from one user to another without ever storing it on any servers and the data only lives locally on-device.
This is a very interesting approach to fixing the messaging problem as it exists right now in the U.S. Apps like Sunbird and Beeper have existed now for some time, and have provided workarounds to getting iMessage on Android. What Carl is doing though, taking an existing third party app's technology and integrating it into a first party messaging app, is something I haven't seen other companies try when it pertains to breaking the iMessage lock-in.
Hopefully this can help keep the conversation alive and bring about some change. Although I doubt that Apple will willingly support RCS within their messages app. You can sign up for updates on the app's progress from the Nothing website.
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