Android
Sunbird’s iMessage app shut down after Nothing Chats debacle
Sunbird says it’s shutting down the app ‘for now’.
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Nothing Chats’ rollout of iMessage for Android, and subsequent takedown from the Google Play Store debacle will stay in the memories of Android users in the years to come.
That said, it’s so big of a controversy that Sunbird, the app Nothing Chats was built around, is also getting pulled from the Google Play Store.
According to the resort by 9to5Google, the creators of the Sunbird app are temporarily shutting it down as it investigates security concerns.
The app is no longer available in the Google Play Store, and Sunbird users have received prior notifications about the app going on a pause.
Investigation of Nothing Chats snowballs Sunbird
The release of the Nothing Chats caused all the commotion, and now, Sunbird is also pulling its app by officially making “several bugs” responsible for the delay. They have stated,
Good afternoon everyone. We are investigating the security issues raised in the last 24 hours. In an abundance of caution and to protect your confidential data, we are shutting down Sunbird media temporarily. We will keep you posted. Thank you, & sincere apologies for the inconvenience.
Nothing Chats was pulled away from the Google Play Store after its security flaws came to light.
Based on the independent findings of the Twitter/X user Wukko and 9to5Google Nothing Chats are not at all encrypted, as anyone can access the app’s user data in plain text.
Reportedly, Nothing Chats sends out messages and media files to a cloud-based application performance monitoring & error tracking service, Sentry.
Also, all the sent app data is unencrypted and stored on Firebase, which is Google’s mobile and web app development platform.
Dylan Roussel from 9to5Google further discovered you can also access every message sent and received on Sunbird.
It means you can access Nothing Chat’s database by proxy, and anyone can access the sent messages and files, like phone numbers, names, and email addresses.
On the other hand, the folks at Texts.com have also found security loopholes in Nothing Chats and detailed them in a blog post.
The researchers at Texts.com are even recommending people using Nothing Chats or Sunbird immediately change their Apple ID password and remove the apps from their phones.
They have also provided a link to permanently eliminate your data from Firebase.
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