Nothing on Tuesday announcedNothing Chats, a new app that brings the ability to send and receive messages with iPhone users through iMessage, to the Android-powered Nothing Phone 2. It’s the first time a phone manufacturer has announced such an app for an Android phone, and it’s sure to get a lot of attention.
Nothing Chats will be available on theNothing Phone 2in the US, Canada, UK, and EU via the Play Store on Friday, Nov. 17.
Nothing Chats doesn’t support alliMessagefeatures. Users will be able to send and receive messages in a single or group chat, see live typing indicators, share full-resolution media, and pass along voice notes. Read receipts, along with message reactions and replies, are all “Coming soon.”
If you own a Phone 2, it’s only natural to feel at least somewhat tempted by the idea of finally being able to ditch the green bubble and chat with your iPhone friends via iMessage. But I strongly encourage you to resist the temptation to join the Blue Bubble Gang. Why? Let me explain.
Why using Nothing Chats isn’t a good idea
Apple’s iMessage service is end-to-end encrypted, with the keys to unlock each message stored on every Apple device you’ve signed into with your Apple ID and enabled iMessage on.
In order for any iMessage on Android service (there are many, which I cover below), your Apple ID or iCloud account needs to be linked to an Apple device, be it an iPhone, Mac, or iPad, and iMessage needs to be enabled.
And forSunbird, the company Nothing partnered with to power Nothing Chats, to facilitate sending and receiving of iMessages between the Android app and Apple devices, is to sign you into a Mac, using your Apple ID.
When you sign into Sunbird’s servers using your Apple ID, you effectively access your entire iCloud account. That means access to the contents of your iCloud Photos library, Apple Pay information, including your Apple Savings account, documents and information stored in iCloud Drive, along with your email, contacts, Home data, App Store purchases… the list goes on.
You’re more or less giving Sunbird access to your entire Apple ID/iCloud account, and if you’re someone who uses Apple’s services, that’s a scary thought.
Suppose you don’t use a lot, or any, of Apple’s services. In that case, it may not be all that scary - but, and this is a big but, it’s important to note that, in theory, Sunbird has access to any and all of your iMessage conversations, including photos and videos you send or receive through the app. To be clear, thecompany insiststhat it doesn’t store any of your messages on its servers but doesn’t explain how that’s possible.
Let me be clear: I’m sure Sunbird has the best intentions to keep its user’s data secure, but breaches happen. Companies are hacked all the time.
I’m just not comfortable with the idea of handing over the keys to my Apple account, let alone leaving all of my iMessage conversations, any of which contain private and personal information, on a third-party server.
How to use Nothing Chats as safe as possible
If you insist on using Nothing Chats, here’s my advice: Create a brand new Apple ID, don’t attach any payment details to it, and don’t store any important documents or information in iCloud or any other Apple service linked to it.
Remember, though, Sunbird could very well have access to all of your iMessage conversations.
Are there more options for iMessage on Android?
Yes! Quite a few, actually.Sunbird, the company that powers Nothing Chats, is one such option. Sunbird has its own dedicated app you may use instead of Nothing Chats. Using that app, you can also link your WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger accounts to the service, giving you access to all of your chats in a single app. Sunbird, however, is currently an invite-only app.
Beeperis another solution to bring iMessage to your Android phone, and it takes the same approach as Sunbird, requiring you to sign into a remote Mac under Beeper’s control, using your Apple ID. Once you’re signed in and have installed the Beeper app on your Android phone or even PC, you can then send and receive iMessages. Beeper goes a lot further than Sunbird in that it also integrates with almost all major messaging apps and services, putting them all in a single app. So you can link your WhatsApp account, Discord, Twitter, Slack, Instagram, or Facebook Messenger, to name a few. You can self-hostBeeper’s softwareif you’re tech-savvy enough and would prefer to have control over the hardware it’s running on.
If you have a spare Mac at home and would prefer to run your own iMessage server,BlueBubblesis what you want to look into. An installation guide walks you step by step through the entire process to get BlueBubbles up and running on your Mac. If you enable BlueBubble’s Private API feature, which is where the app enters a gray area as far as privacy and security are concerned, you get access to the full suite of iMessage features like reactions, typing indicators, read receipts, replies, and so on.
The setup process for BlueBubbles as shown by the developers
Keep in mind that the Mac you setup BlueBubbles on will need to be always on and always connected to the internet for you to be able to send and receive iMessages from your Android phone.
I’ve been using BlueBubbles for over a year now, maybe closer to two years, on an older MacBook Pro in my basement and have had great luck with it. The app and service work well enough as long as my home internet is working or I haven’t lost power. I’m not thrilled about routing all of my conversations through a third-party app and Google’s servers, but I feel confident enough in the privacy of my current setup that I’ve continued to use it.
There used to be another self-hosted app calledAirMessage, but it appears the developer has stopped working on it. It was a lighter-weight app that didn’t require as much setup as BlueBubbles, but it also lacked many of the features that BlueBubbles offers.
What are my other options?
Short of Apple announcing iMessage for Android, workarounds and hacks like Nothings Chats or BlueBubbles will continue to exist. And as long as iMessage envy is real, at least in the US, people will continue to use said services, trading their Apple ID privacy and security for that elusive blue bubble acceptance.
I’m not holding my breath for Apple to release an Android iMessage app anytime soon, or ever for that matter. But perhaps Google continuing to put pressure on the iPhone maker to adopt RCS support will finally push the company to add RCS to the Messages app. Then again, probably not.
If none of the solutions I outlined above are appealing, I guess that means you’re left with one option:Buy an iPhone.
