Nothing temporarily removes Nothing Chats messaging service from Google Play Store

Nothing has pulled the beta version of Nothing Chats from the Google Play Store. The company says that the official introduction of the app will be postponed until further notice because some bugs need to be fixed first. It is not clear when a final release will follow.

Nothing does not share specific details about the bugs in Nothing Chats, but mentions that it will work with Sunbird to fix them. Sunbird manages the underlying platform of the Nothing Chats app that allows Android users to chat with iMessage users.

The company behind this service is said to use a cluster of Mac computers with iMessage installed. Those computers would receive the text messages from the users, after which software would send them to the correct contact via the iMessage app. Sunbird suggests that there is no need for a separate Mac for each user, but that has not been confirmed. The company claims that the messages are end-to-end encrypted and not stored on its servers. It does not say exactly how that works.

Shortly after the announcement of Nothing Chats, many journalists published reservations about the approach of Nothing and Sunbird. The editors of 9to5Google took a closer look at the code of the chat app and discovered that messages sent through the app are not end-to-end encrypted. However, that is a claim from Sunbird. It would also be relatively easy for hackers to intercept contact information, photos and videos sent through the service.

Nothing had introduced Nothing Chats on November 14. The messaging app was available in beta from November 17 via the Google Play Store. Initially, the app was only available to Nothing Phone (2) smartphone users in the European Union, US, Canada, UK, Norway and Switzerland. It is not clear when the final release will follow.

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