Nothing tried to outdo Apple’s RCS; instead it created a privacy disaster

A hand holding a phone that's running Nothing Chats
(Image credit: Nothing)

Apple has announced that it will start supporting RCS in its Messages app after many years of holding out. But, shortly before Apple's revelation, phone maker Nothing launched an alternative solution – and it's turned out to be a privacy and security disaster.

Called Nothing Chats, in theory it would have allowed Android users to have an iMessage-like experience when talking to Apple users, with blue text bubbles in place of the green ones currently shown if someone is messaging from Android. It wouldn’t have replicated some other iMessage features, though, like editable texts.

However, there was a serious problem with Nothing Chats: it was a privacy nightmare. In order to use it, you needed to hand over your iCloud login details, with no guarantee that this information would be safely stored by Nothing or Sunbird, the company that developed Nothing Chats.

Things got worse when it was revealed by developer Dylan Roussel (via AppleInsider) that Sunbird had access to every single message sent using the service, including texts, images, videos and more. It achieved this by abusing the Sentry error-detection tool: instead of using it to log errors, Sunbird used it to capture entire messages and then pretend that they were errors.

A security nightmare

Woman using iMessage on iPhone

(Image credit: Shutterstock / DenPhotos)

It didn’t end there. As further detailed by Roussel, anyone could access these messages, and Nothing Chats hadn’t implemented any kind of end-to-end encryption at all – despite claiming that it had.

The lack of attention paid to security and privacy concerns is quite incredible given the size of Nothing, and the numbers of customers it presumably sought to attract to Nothing Chats. Roussel called it “probably the biggest ‘privacy nightmare’ I’ve seen by a phone manufacturer in years.”

These lapses led to the Nothing Chats app being pulled from the Google Play Store over the weekend, a rapid and ignominious demise for what Nothing founder Carl Pei originally called a “naughty idea.” As per Europe’s GDPR privacy statue, Sunbird now has 72 hours to notify potential victims after being made aware of the app’s problems.

If there’s one thing Apple does extremely well, it’s protect its users privacy. We don’t yet know exactly how Apple will incorporate RCS into its Messages app, but it’s a good bet that it’ll be a more competent rollout than Nothing Chats.

You might also like

TOPICS
Alex Blake
Freelance Contributor

Alex Blake has been fooling around with computers since the early 1990s, and since that time he's learned a thing or two about tech. No more than two things, though. That's all his brain can hold. As well as TechRadar, Alex writes for iMore, Digital Trends and Creative Bloq, among others. He was previously commissioning editor at MacFormat magazine. That means he mostly covers the world of Apple and its latest products, but also Windows, computer peripherals, mobile apps, and much more beyond. When not writing, you can find him hiking the English countryside and gaming on his PC.

Read more
Man using iMessage on an iPhone
Apple will finally enable encrypted RCS messages between iOS and Android, and it's about time
Actalis SSL encryption
Apple is right not to bow down to the UK government's encryption backdoor request - but users should still be angry
Collage of hand with a key and a smartphone
Is it possible to send a truly anonymous message?
ignal messaging application President Meredith Whittaker poses for a photograph before an interview at the Europe's largest tech conference, the Web Summit, in Lisbon on November 4, 2022.
"We will not walk back" – Signal would rather leave the UK and Sweden than remove encryption protections
AirDrop on an Apple device.
The EU could force Apple to put AirDrop and AirPlay on Android phones
Samsung Galaxy S25 home screen
Samsung just quietly retired its Google Messages rival, and not everyone will be happy about it
Latest in Nothing Phones
Nothing Phone (3a) Pro from back showing Glyph lights
I reviewed the Nothing Phone 3a Pro and it's not the lights and beeps that make it the best bargain smartphone
Close up of Nothing Phone 2a showing its glyph lighting
New video leak may have revealed the full Nothing Phone 3a and Phone 3a Pro design
Close up of Nothing Phone 2a showing its glyph lighting
Leaked Nothing Phone 3a and 3a Pro renders tease a mid-range phone that should have Samsung worried
The Nothing Phone 2a on display, composite with a teaser from Nothing that displays the possible side of the Nothing Phone 3a
The Nothing Phone 3a could borrow the iPhone 16’s best feature – and I think it’s a great idea
Front of Nothing Phone 2a
The Nothing Phone 3a series is confirmed for March 4, and a photo and specs rumor gives us an idea of what to expect
Nothing Phone 2 review front angled table - white balanced
Nothing hints that the Phone 3 could have the one feature it needs to rival the Samsung Galaxy S25
Latest in News
European Union technical background
EU tech companies push for digital sovereignty, reducing reliance on US and others
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic
Knights of the Old Republic remake developer Saber Interactive states all its projects are 'still in development'
google nest
Google is slowly phasing out its Assistant helper to make room for Gemini's reign in smartphones - here’s how it’s doing the same for smart home devices
Renault 5 Turbo 3E
Renault unveils its wildest EV to date and it comes with in-wheel motors and a rally-style vertical handbrake for drifting
Circular smart ring
Circular's new smart ring is getting blood pressure and blood glucose monitoring before the Apple Watch
Gemini on a mobile phone.
Worryingly, Google Gemini’s new AI image generation features can be used to remove watermarks from images and I'm concerned