Nothing Removes its Recently Launched Chats App from Google’s Play Store Amid Safety Concerns

Nothing Chats was released a few days ago, and everyone was taken aback by it. The battle between Apple and Android fans over the colour of their notification bubbles was thought to be settled at the time. However, fans were surprised to hear that Nothing took the app beta off the Play Store just days after announcing its release.

According to a recent tweet by Nothing on X/Twitter, the firm has decided to remove the app from Google’s Play Store due to a number of bugs that they want to fix. They said in the tweet that they will be working with Sunbird to fix the bugs and will announce a release date soon. The firm also apologized to its consumers, explaining that they want the software to be perfect ffor them.

The Actual Problem

At the time of launch, the company claimed that the Nothing chats were end-to-end encrypted and even claimed that the device was private and secure. However, things were not looking good as people were speculating about the flaws with the safety of the app.

Nothing Chats makes use of Sunbird’s app architecture, which was created by Nothing. It was meant to make the Nothing Phone 2 compatible with the iMessage app. Users simply download the app to their phone and sign in using their Apple ID. This creates a virtual instance of one of Sunbird’s Mac Minis, and when you speak with an iPhone, it thinks you’re talking to another Apple device.

Nothing Chats contained a multitude of problems and security issues, which had become public knowledge. Kishan Bagaria, the creator of Texts.com, had his team investigate the app, and it was revealed the app transferred all its data over HTTP rather than the more secure b.

Going through the Twitter thread, you’ll notice that Nothing Chats is also utilizing the technology built by BlueBubbles, another competitor app that provides similar capabilities. Nothing, on the other hand, was quick to respond to Nothing Chats.

While the protocol is HTTP, all data is encrypted and the key used to encrypt that data is provided via HTTPS so Apple credentials or messages sent via that HTTP request are secure and not open to the public. All sensitive user data such as Apple ID credentials and messages are encrypted at all times. The HTTP is only used as part of the one-off initial request from the app notifying the back-end of the upcoming iMessage connection iteration that will follow via a stand alone communication channel.

Regarding the other part of his tweet, years ago when the servers were being built Sunbird’s co-founder named them Blue Bubbles. Sunbird/Chats is not using an instance of anyone else’s technology – the naming is strictly coincidence.

Additionally, I want to add that from the start, that Sunbird has been focused on security and its ISO27001 certification (Certificate Number: IA-2023-09-21-01), an internationally recognized specification for an information security management system, is a reflection of its commitment to user privacy.

If the preceding information is correct, it is unexpected that Nothing removed its app from the Google Play store. Either the revelations were accurate or Nothing discovered additional problems in its software, with the latter having a very low possibility. This is all we know for the time being; let us know what you think in the comments section below.