(Credit: Shutterstock / Jesse33)
Nothing has removed the beta version of if its new messaging app, Nothing Chat, from the Play Store just days after its release.
The app offered iMessage support on Android by having users log in using their Apple ID and then relaying messages they send to iPhone users like a traditional iMessage. While the app claimed its messaging was end-to-end encrypted, users quickly discovered that wasn’t the case.
Friday evening, Twitter/X user Wukko shared that the app sends and store all of its data unencrypted on Firebase, and it also sends all of its messages and attachments to Sentry in plain text, creating “an absolute privacy nightmare.”
9to5Google independently confirmed Wukko’s findings. It found that Sunbird has access to every message sent and received through the app and that all of documents—pictures, videos, audio files, PDFs—that are sent through Nothing Chat and Sunbird are public.
Nothing today removed the beta version of the app from the store in order to "work with Sunbird to fix several bugs," it tweeted.
Apple hasn't publicly commented on Nothing Chat, though in a surprise move this week, it did announce plans to embrace Rich Communications Services (RCS) messaging in 2024.