Sunbird shuts down app ‘for now’ after Nothing announces iMessage integration

Sunbird, the app that brings iMessage to Android, has temporarily shut down its service over “security concerns,” as was first seen on Reddit. In a notice to users, Sunbird says it has “decided to suspend use of Sunbird at this time.” At the same time, it is investigating reports that its messages are not end-to-end encrypted.

I just received this notification for security issues
byu/nascarrocks inSunbird

Sunbird was launched in 2022 as a messaging app that attempts to consolidate all messaging apps into one. It’s only available to those who sign up for its waitlist, touting plenty of privacy features, like end-to-end encryption, no message data collection, and no ads.

Last week, Sunbird partnered with Nothing, the phone brand owned by OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei, for the launch of Nothing Chats. The Sunbird-powered messaging service is supposed to allow Phone 2 owners to send text messages via iMessage. Surprisingly, it was removed from the Google Play Store just a day after its launch. Well, that doesn’t seem surprising anymore.

Nothing said he had to fix “several bugs” within the application at the time. But users criticized them for calling security issues bugs.

Sunbird has yet to comment on the app’s shutdown, but its message to users says: “We will update you when we are ready to continue.” » The app is no longer listed on the Google Play Store even though it was available for download last month, according to an archived page version.