The Nothing Chats flop: the app that brings iMessage to Android has been withdrawn
A few days ago Nothing announced with great enthusiasm a new messaging app, very particular because it promised the possibility of using it iMessages on Android devices, or rather on its smartphone models.
The app was not welcomed as an absolute novelty, given that there are already similar alternatives on the market, such as Beeper which we tested in detail. But Nothing Chatsthat’s what the app is called, has also attracted attention for its management of personal data.
In fact, from the beginning, doubts arose from many quarters regarding the management of user data. The service is entrusted to third parties, i.e. the platform Sunbirdwhich would have the role of accessing users’ Apple ID via server and then conveying the messaging contents to the Nothing app.
The news in the last few hours is that the Nothing Chats app has been officially withdrawn from the Play Store, after having arrived there a few hours earlier. The official reasons, reported by Nothing, are the need for further work on the app to fix the unspecified bugs in collaboration with Sunbird.
In fact, in the last few hours some have emerged online worrying details on the app’s management of personal content. In fact, the Texts.com blog showed how it was possible access messages exchanged on iMessages via Nothing Chats, which would not even be encrypted according to the mode end-to-end.
As confirmed by 9to5Googlein addition to clear messages, there were also multimedia contents visible as links to clear attachments. Also contacts they would be accessible in a simple way, with usernames, telephone numbers, email addresses and sometimes even other personal data visible in clear text. In short, a disaster from a privacy point of view for an app that should focus precisely on that aspect to be successful.
After the initial criticisms, Nothing had also reassured users regarding the management of personal data, confirming end-to-end encryption and the use of the HTTPS standard for key transfer to decrypt them. It seems quite clear that something doesn’t add up in all this, certainly Nothing it will take some time to understand how to resolve this unpleasant situation.
