Nothing has released the Nothing Chats app that brings iMessage compatibility to Android. But there are nuances

Google has long been urging Apple to join the RCS messaging protocol, the successor to the outdated SMS and MMS standards, but so far without results. As a result, iMessage lacks compatibility with RCS-enabled messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Telegram and Google Messages. This has split the blue and green chat bubbles: users of Android and Apple devices can't fully exchange messages and files. Unexpectedly, Nothing has found a solution to this problem.

Details

The company has unveiled Nothing Chats, an app that brings iMessage compatibility to Android, including green bubble messaging, full support for group chat messages, real-time typing indicators, full-resolution media sharing, and voice memos. And they should soon add read notifications, message reactions and replies.

But Nothing seems to have done this without Apple's knowledge. The app is built on the Sunbird platform, and authorisation requires the creation and verification of an Apple ID on an Apple device, which users then use to log into Nothing Chats. An undisclosed number of Mac Sunbird mini computers in Europe and North America are used as an intermediary point for sending and receiving iMessage-compatible texts and multimedia. Nothing claims that all Nothing Chats messages are encrypted, so neither Sunbird nor Nothing can access your messages or shared files.

Nothing Chats will be available on Google Play from 17 November, but only for Nothing Phone (2) smartphone owners. The app will also be exclusive to users in the US, Canada, UK and EU at launch.

Source: Nothing