Sunbird, the iMessage-for-Android app that received shut down, is again once more

Abstract

• Sunbird relaunches its messaging app in beta with AV2 encryption protocol for enhanced message safety and privateness.
• The corporate guarantees improved safety measures and organizational adjustments for a safer messaging expertise.
• It quickly pulled the plug on its messaging app late final 12 months resulting from safety points, corresponding to lack of encryption for inner processes.

A bunch of messaging apps tried to hyperlink iOS and Android messaging, however Nothing (the cellphone firm) got here the closest with its Sunbird partnership. The London-based firm joined forces with Sunbird to create Nothing Chats, a messaging service mirroring iMessage assist. It is like chatting with an iPhone person on Android—full with messages, group chats, high-quality photos, and voice notes. Nonetheless, it was later found that the app wasn’t encrypting Apple login credentials when sending them out. This prompted Sunbird to pause its app on the Play Retailer final November resulting from safety worries. Now, the corporate is re-launching the iMessage-for-Android app.

Sunbird introduced in a press launch the relaunch of its beta app with some main backend upgrades. The corporate mentioned over 165,000 customers have signed up for the waitlist, and invitations are rolling out in small waves. Plus, this new model comes with a great deal of fixes, tweaks, and upgrades from the primary spherical.

The corporate has revamped its earlier AV1 iMessage setup into one thing even higher: AV2. This new system is meant to maintain your messages secure by utilizing a particular program (MQTTS) to deal with messages securely, type of like an encrypted tunnel. As per Sunbird, as soon as your message is decrypted and despatched to the iMessage or RCS/Google Messages Community, it is solely saved in reminiscence briefly, maintaining your chats safe.

Sunbird made its debut in 2022 with the aim of bringing iMessage to Android. Nonetheless, it began small, with a non-public beta and waitlist for a fortunate few. Despite the fact that it by no means went mainstream, it did broaden its horizons by teaming up with Nothing for Nothing Chats. Sadly, there was a serious hitch: anybody may see your messages as they weren’t encrypted.

Sunbird is promising a safe messaging expertise this time

With Sunbird’s return, the corporate is making huge guarantees for a secure and streamlined messaging setup. It owned as much as previous safety slip-ups and shot down any ties to “BlueBubblesApp” in its system. After the mess from final 12 months, the service mentioned it took a step again to essentially dig into its technical setups and the way issues are run internally.

Alongside the technical adjustments, Sunbird is shaking issues up organizationally too. It has introduced in CIPHER, an impartial safety consultancy, for an additional layer of safety. Plus, it appointed Jared Jordan, a former engineering director of Google’s Gmail workforce, as an advisor.