Developers have been trying to make iMessage work on Android for years. The latest attempt concerns Beeper, whichused reverse engineeringto connect to Apple servers. The Apple firm obviously did not see the matter favorably, since it systematicallyblocked Beeper's attemptsto connect Android to iMessage. The methods used by Beeper represented according to Applea threat to the security of its systems.
Before Beeper, the messaging app SunBird tried a similar approach, which required you to trust your Apple ID to the app, something Apple would never ask you to do. SunBird waspopularized by the Nothing company, who seems to have been fooled by his partner. The aim of this association was tointegrate SunBird with Nothing Chat,in order to proposeiMessage natively on Nothing Phone.
Nothing founder Carl Pei proudly announced this partnership in November 2023, but he quickly became disillusioned. Following this announcement, the team of a messaging app competing with SunBird analyzed the Nothing Chat app in depth, and found that it wasa safety strainer, Whodidn't even support HTTPS.
The Nothing Chat application was subsequentlybanned from Google PlayStore, just like that of its developer, SunBird. The latter, however, today seems to want to get back into the race witha new way to connect Android to iMessage.
No reverse engineering?
In a press release, SunBird returns to the November episode, and in particular the lack of security of its application at that time. SunBird claims to have thoroughly reassessed its entire organization and technical processes, andwould be able to provideTodaya secure bridge between iMessage and Android. In its press release, the company states:
Since November, the Sunbird team has been working on migrating the iMessage implementation from AV1 to the AV2 architecture. With the adoption of AV2, we believe we have not only addressed previously identified security vulnerabilities, but also provided a secure, privacy-focused foundation for Sunbird's future iMessage integration.
The last few months have been very disappointing for the Sunbird team. Despite the recent challenges we have faced, we all believe in the potential of the Sunbird app to bring a world-class unified messaging platform to every Android device. We are committed to regaining the trust of our users and partners, and the entire Sunbird team is focused on relaunching the Sunbird app in early April. We will continue to share updates on our progress and developments.
And the RCS?
Will SunBird's attempt to bring iMessage back to Android via a "more secure bridge" suit Apple? We will probably know in the near future. The application is currently relaunched in beta version by SunBird, but is notstill not offered on the PlayStore. Especially sinceApple will soon support RCS, which is Google's advanced standard offering the same features as iMessage. However, SunBird continues to want to offer a Bridge using an Apple ID.
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By : Keleops AG
