Nothing Chats removed from Google Play Store amid privacy concerns
What's the story
Nothing has pulled the Nothing Chats beta from the Google Play Store, saying it aims to address "several bugs" and postponed the messaging app's launch indefinitely.
This move follows a blog post by Texts.com, which exposed that messages sent via Sunbird's system, the platform provider for Nothing Chats, lacked end-to-end encryption and were vulnerable to security breaches.
The app was initially released in beta on Friday (November 17) but encountered security issues within just one day of its debut.
Details
Messaging app bears major security flaws
As per Texts.com's blog entry, a hacker with a subscription to the Firebase real-time database could easily intercept Nothing Chats messages.
Moreover, 9to5Google, citing Android developer Dylan Roussel, reported that Sunbird decrypts and sends messages using HTTP to a Firebase cloud-syncing server, where they are stored as unencrypted plain text.
Roussel has discovered that Sunbird can access messages by logging them as errors via Sentry—a debugging service—contradicting Nothing's assertion that no one at Sunbird can access sent/received messages.
Scenario
Nothing's response to security concerns
Addressing the highlighted security issues, Nothing announced on X that they have taken down the Nothing Chats beta from the Google Play Store and deferred its launch until further notice.
The company stated, "We apologize for the delay and will do right by our users."
It intends to collaborate with Sunbird to resolve the several detected bugs before reintroducing the app.
Insights
Original purpose of Nothing Chats and future implications
Originally, Nothing Chats was designed to enable Android users of Nothing Phone (2) to connect with iPhone users through Apple's iMessage.
However, Apple's declaration to support RCS (Rich Communication Services) by late 2024 might render much of Nothing Chats's primary purpose irrelevant.
Given the recent security concerns and potential obsolescence, the future of Nothing Chats is uncertain as the company strives to tackle the identified problems.