Sunbird's iMessage app for Android is back after a major privacy snafu
This was one of the interoperability tools people used before Apple adopted RCS.
The messaging app Sunbird is back on the Google Play Store a full three years after it was taken down due to a major privacy issue. This is a tool for Android users that lets them participate in iPhone texts and group chats, without any encryption or interoperability issues.
The elephant in the room is the year 2026. Interoperability was a huge problem in 2023, back before Apple adopted the Rich Communications Services (RCS) protocol in 2024. Nowadays, Apple users texting with an Android user will see typing indicators, read receipts and high-resolution media. This particular problem has been solved, except for one thing.
The text bubbles are still green, alerting iPhone users that an Android user is in their midst. You see, iPhone chat bubbles are blue. If that's a really big deal to you, Sunbird will turn the chat bubbles blue. Also, the platform promises to fix any lingering integration issues. Personally, I haven't run into too many since Apple adopted RCS, but maybe that's just me.
This is all done by connecting an Android device to a remote server that registers it with an Apple ID. Apple's network typically authenticates the ID as a Mac or authorized hardware node. The end result? Sweet, sweet blue text bubbles.
Text colors don't seem like that big of a deal to me, but Sunbird cites a survey that suggests 30 percent of Android users have considered switching to an iPhone over "pressure and mockery." The survey also claims that nearly a quarter of iPhone users wouldn't date an Android user. I don't know who these people are that participated in this survey, but may I suggest therapy?
Sunbird promises future WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger integration, which could be handy. The press release also teases a spate of forthcoming AI tools, which don't seem all that impressive. There's something called Catch Me Up that summarizes text messages, which is a feature that always confuses me given that reading a summary of text messages often takes longer than reading the actual messages. Also, why would I want a summary of something my friend said? We are texting to, you know, communicate.
There's also some kind of agentic AI assistant coming down the pike. This chatbot can "take simple actions on request, such as drafting a reply or moving a chat." The company promises that the AI tools are being built in such a way that "a user's messages stay private."
To that end, Sunbird was shut down in 2023 because users found they could easily exploit vulnerabilities in the encryption system to access private messages. The publication 9to5Google was able to get into over 630,000 files using these vulnerabilities.
In any event, the new Sunbird is available to download right now. It's free to install, but costs $3 per month or $24 per year. There is, however, a 14-day free trial.
Originally published on Engadget
