Nothing has just announced Nothing Chats, allowing Android users to message with blue bubbles. Instead of passive aggression like what Google has been doing, Nothing worked with Sunbird to enable blue bubbles on Android via Nothing Chats. At the moment, the app is exclusive to the Nothing Phone (2), and it’s only available in US, Canada, UK and EU.
Blue bubbles in iMessage on Android thanks to Nothing
With Nothing Chats, you can login to an Apple ID to send iMessages from your Android phone. You can watch this video by MKBHD to understand it further. It’s essentially going to login your Nothing Phone (2) to a Mac Mini in a remote server farm. For anyone concerned about the security and privacy issues that this raises, then Nothing Chats is definitely not for you. I personally wouldn’t. Just use WhatsApp.
I honestly think the whole iMessage debacle is making a mountain out of a molehill, and this is me as an iPhone user speaking. But if you’re in the US, that might be an entirely different story, and you might want to have iMessage on your Android device. Kids are reportedly getting bullied over in the States for simply having green bubbles.
For the uninitiated, iMessage differentiates regular SMSes with green bubbles, and iMessages with blue bubbles. Apple has yet to support Rich Communication Services (RCS) that is widely adopted by Android smartphones, and it is seen as a form of gatekeeping by the fruity brand to force users to stay loyal to the platform.
[UPDATE 18th November: Nothing Chats has been taken off the Play Store]
We've removed the Nothing Chats beta from the Play Store and will be delaying the launch until further notice to work with Sunbird to fix several bugs.
— Nothing (@nothing) November 18, 2023
We apologise for the delay and will do right by our users.
Well, Nothing has taken Nothing Chats off the Play Store, leaving them with nothing to show despite claiming credit for pushing Apple towards adopting RCS. What a joke.
looks like they got the message https://t.co/gKMGNnnYiK
— Nothing (@nothing) November 16, 2023