In a bold move, Nothing, founded by Carl Pei, has just announced a new product—Nothing Chats. This app is developed in partnership with Sunbird, a messaging app aiming to bring iMessage to Android.
Nothing Chats aims to break down the barriers that separate Android and Apple messaging app users, something that even Google has not been able to touch with their “Get the message” pressure campaign.
The app is set to be available via the Play Store, but only for Phone (2) users in the US, Canada, UK, and EU. It is unknown if it will become available for the Phone (1) or other Android phones in the future. Nothing Chats is currently in Beta and adding more features as things progress. As of this announcement, the app supports many of the native features you get with iMessage, such as live typing indicators, full-res media sharing, and group chats. However, message reactions & replies, as well as read receipts, are still being worked on.
According to Nothing’s website, all messages are end-to-end encrypted and are delivered from one user to another without ever storing it on any servers, meaning the data only lives locally on the device.
This is a very interesting approach to fixing the messaging problem as it exists right now in the U.S. Hopefully, this move can bring about some change, although it is doubtful that Apple will willingly support RCS within their messages app.
For updates on the app’s progress, users can sign up for updates on the Nothing website.