Nothing Chats: The Solution that failed to Talk with Apple’s iMessage from Android

6 min readNov 27, 2023

Nothing has given a surprise with the launch of Nothing Chats. This is an application that will soon arrive on the Nothing Phone (2) and that aims to end the war between Google and Apple over iMessage and RCS messages. At least on the Phone (2), of course. Carl Pei himself, founder of Nothing, commented in the presentation of the application that he assumes that Tim Cook will not like it, but that they believe that technology builds bridges and does not raise barriers. Let’s see what Nothing Chats is and what happens with the security of our Apple ID.

A Tale of Two Messaging Platforms

In the United States, there is a battle between Apple messages and Android messages. The reason is that yes, there they know and use WhatsApp or Telegram, but SMS is still their daily bread. In fact, and due to the sales volume of the iPhone in the United States, If you enter the Apple ecosystem, it is difficult to leave. The reason is that just as many could not live without Telegram or WhatsApp, they cannot do so without iMessage. They are not just SMS, but chats enriched with reading receipts, writing alerts, Quick reactions and answers, photos and videos in HD and other series of features. Like the ones we have in other messaging applications, but for “old-fashioned” messages.

Even the contrast is different and easier to read with the blue background

Now, on Android we also have those rich messages thanks to the RCS protocol, but Google RCS are not compatible with iMessage, and vice versa. If you have an iPhone and they send you an SMS, even from a latest generation Android, it will be a conventional SMS. If they send you a message from an iPhone, iPad or Mac, things change and those advantages we were talking about are activated. Besides, If you have an iPhone and you send an SMS to another iPhone, your bubble will be blue, indicating that the other person has iMessage. If you send it to an Android, its bubble will be green. There is, as we say, a whole battle over the color of the bubble.

The Birth of Nothing Chats

There are applications that allow us to add various communication systems, such as Beeper, which allow us to bring together many other applications and talk with iMessage from Android, but There is always a common theme in these services: privacy. We’ll talk about that later.

And something similar is what Nothing proposes with Nothing Chats. The truth is that Carl Pei caught us all by surprise because, yesterday afternoon, he announced this application with the aim of be able to use Apple’s iMessage on Android. Well, on its Nothing Phone (2), for now, and we don’t know if it will reach the Nothing Phone (1) or more Android phones.

Why are you interested in having your Nothing Phone compatible with iMessage?

The truth is that it is quite simple. As shared in the video you have about this line, they have discovered that the majority of users who buy Nothing headphones (the Ear (1), Ear (2) and Ear Stick) are iPhone users. That is to say, they have discovered that they like their devices and have impact, but iPhone users are not switching to a Nothing in the United States. And one of the reasons may be because, if they abandon the iPhone, they would lose the ability to use iMessage messages with their friends and family.

It may seem trivial, but imagine that WhatsApp is exclusive to Android and they tell you that if you buy an iPhone, you lose WhatsApp. Well, the same thing happens in certain countries with iMessage.

So, with Nothing Chats, the goal is for iPhone users to buy a Nothing Phone and, with this application, they will be able to continue talking normally with their circle. You must enter your Apple ID to start Nothing Chat and… ready, let’s chat with our contacts.

The Technicalities of Nothing Chats

To create Nothing Chats, the company has used Sunbird technology (very similar to the Beeper we mentioned above), but the design of the app itself is by Nothing. And what the first version offers is:

Conventional messages
Groups
Real-time indicators such as seeing what the other person is typing
voice notes
HD videos and photos

There are features like message reactions and replies, as well as read notifications, which will be added later, but for now it is a beta for users in Europe, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.

The Privacy Concerns of Nothing Chats

And, of course, you may be wondering what happens to our data. According to Pei, and according to Nothing’s information page, everything is saved on your device and there is no need to worry about privacy. As always, it’s a matter of… you either trust it or you don’t.

Messages are end-to-end encrypted and Sunbird acts as an intermediary, but does not keep anything. This is what we can see on the web:

Nothing Chats is powered by Sunbird, and Sunbird’s architecture provides a system for sending a message from one user to another without storing it at any point along the way. Messages are not stored on Sunbird servers; They are only on your device. Once the message is delivered, it can only be retrieved locally from your personal device.

But… And the Apple ID that we need to enter, along with your credentials and everything that it means, to be able to use Nothing Chats? That is the key question when we talk about security and privacy of this service and Android Authority has received an answer from a company spokesperson:

Once you sign in to the Chats app for the first time using your existing or new Apple ID, your credentials are tokenized in an encrypted database and associated with one of Sunbird’s Mac Minis based in North America or Europe, depending on its location. An encrypted relay is created for iMessages sent through the app. Once it is created, it is locked and neither Sunbird nor anyone else can access it, even if they had access to the physical server. The only action Sunbird can take with the information is to delete it.

In addition to talking about security protocols and certifications, Nothing states that the only information that is stored is the account email, but that it is removed if a user is inactive for two weeks.

Again, it’s a trust issue, but it’s clear that if Nothing has been able to create — or partner — with a company to create this type of cross-communication, any company could create its own system to have iMessage on Android.

The Future of Messaging

In one of the most surprising moves of the year, Apple has committed to bringing RCS to the iPhone and Messages in 2024. Feel to read that again, but yes, Apple has apparently adopted RCS and will bring it to the iPhone over the coming year.

Through a statement released to 9to5Mac, Apple says it will adopt the RCS Universal Profile that is the standard across the smartphone world and is the upgraded version of SMS and MMS texting. They also acknowledged that their implementation of RCS will “work alongside iMessage” as the best messaging system for Apple users.

Here’s the full statement:

Later next year, we will be adding support for RCS Universal Profile, the standard as currently published by the GSM Association. We believe RCS Universal Profile will offer a better interoperability experience when compared to SMS or MMS. This will work alongside iMessage, which will continue to be the best and most secure messaging experience for Apple users.

To be clear here, this is not Apple saying it will open up iMessage to users outside of its own ecosystem. It is instead doing what Google has been pressuring them to do, which is adopt RCS as the fallback messaging technology when an iPhone user messages an Android user.

This all goes back to the green vs. blue bubble scenario, but it really means that messaging between an iPhone and an Android phone should just work better. RCS is an upgraded platform that allows for better group chats, typing indicators, high-res media sharing, location sharing, and more. It’s more secure as well, although Apple seems to think it is not as secure as iMessage. They could be right, who knows.

This is quite big. We could still have obnoxious bubble color wars, but at least the messaging experience shouldn’t suck between iPhones and Pixels and Galaxy devices.

Conclusion

Nothing Chats is a promising new app that has the potential to bridge the gap between Apple and Android messaging. However, it is important to note that the app is still in beta and that there are some privacy concerns that need to be addressed. Overall, Nothing Chats is a promising step towards a more unified messaging experience, but it is still too early to say whether it will be a success.