Sunbird Pulls the Plug on Android iMessage App After Security Risks Revealed
It looks like the sun has set on Sunbird, an app that allows Android users to access Apple’s iMessage functionality on Android devices. Accused of serious data protection and information security deficiencies, the developers of the application have decided to cancel the application temporarily.
As reported by 9to5Google , Sunbird sent a message to its users saying that the team has “decided to temporarily suspend use of Sunbird” as it investigates “security concerns.” This comes after the app was accused of falsely claiming that messages sent on the platform were end-to-end encrypted.
Additionally, it also follows Sunbird’s collaboration with Nothing to launch Nothing Chats – which promised to allow Nothing Phone 2 owners to use iMessage on Android. However, after criticism of the state of Sunbird’s backend, the brains behind the app – Nothing Chats – was removed from the Google Play Store after only one day of use.
At the time, Nothing announced on X (formerly Twitter) that it was removing the app “to work with Sunbird to fix several bugs.” But now it seems that these aren’t the only bugs that Sunbird is struggling with.
Kishan Bagaria, founder of Texts.com, claimed that Sunbird did not use HTTPS; instead, it sent credentials over plain HTTP. He also revealed that the app’s backend was running in a BlueBubbles instance, which apparently lacks support for end-to-end encryption.
Sunbird was quick to respond, stating, “HTTP is only used as part of the app’s one-time initial request to announce an upcoming iMessage connection iteration that follows through a separate communication channel.” And that application, from the beginning, has focused on security.
However, now that the developers have removed the app, it seems that Bagaria’s claims could be true, and the app needs to fix security issues before it’s ready for general use.
In the meantime, it remains to be seen how Nothing will react to this situation, as they were quite optimistic about this implementation, and how their reputation will also be on the line. Moreover, now that Apple has promised to support RCS in 2024, the collaboration may prove to be even more unnecessary.
