“Nothing Chats, powered by Sunbird, allows you to directly message other phone users from your Nothing phone via blue bubbles.”
I don’t think this solves the problem, but it is a step in the right direction.
This makes me roll my eyes. From the Sunbird faq:
Will the app [sunbird] be open source?
Some of the messaging community believes that software that is open source is more secure. It is our view that it is not. The more visibility there is into the infrastructure and code, the easier it is to penetrate it. By design, open source software is distributed in nature. There is no central authority to ensure quality and maintenance and by putting that responsibility on Sunbird, development would not be feasible. Open source vulnerabilities typically stem from poorly written code that leave gaps, which attackers can use to carryout malicious activities.
To help satisfy our own ambitious goals of providing total privacy and security, we are currently undergoing a third party audit that will validate our security, encryption and data policies and plan on receiving ISO 27001 certification after launch.
Sure Jan.
edit: source: https://www.sunbirdapp.com/ at the bottom
The reddest of red flags.
Open source vulnerabilities typically stem from poorly written code
Yeah, because paid programmers never write bad closed-source code…
If you want blue bubbles so much, use Signal.
Or green bubbles, or red bubbles, pink bubbles, multicoloured bubbles
How far would you go to conform for something as mundane as chat bubble colors? How soulless will your life have to be to demand something like this?
It’s not about the bubbles. It’s the group chats, encryption, media size, and other rich chat features.
All these features you get much better using actual E2E-encrypted chat apps like Signal or WhatsApp like the rest of the world.
The problem is getting other people to also use those apps :(
This is true.
But also, 99% of the population is not technical enough to download such apps and use them. They will only use the default apps that came with their phone, whatever outdated protocol they happen to be utilizing. Why else do you think Facebook, for example, pays manufacturers to preload their crapware on new handsets? And even more to make it as difficult to remove as possible.
WhatsApp does not come pre-installed on most phones (for some reason it often isn’t included even with Facebook’s crapware). It is still the de facto chat app in India, Brazil and dozens of other Asian, South American and European countries.
As far as I know, SMS in India and Brazil is not free. This means that for majority of users switching to a data-based app is not so much as a choice, but a necessity. In the US texting via SMS has been free for several decades, so there’s no reason for people to look for an alternative.
SMS has been free in India since 2016. Though one could say WhatsApp had already become dominant by then, so it stuck.
Exactly. It has reached critical mass to a point where if you’re not on it, you’re basically not communicating.
Also, I remember that cross-carrier calling was an issue, which is why most people would need to use dual-SIM phones. Not sure if it’s the same for SMS.
