Midhun I hope we’ll see more info/details from Nothing soon on this, maybe even Carl directly. However I don’t think Sunbird is trust worthy nor do I expect Sunbird to be transparent here. Even their own website is misleading. Sunbird as an app shouldn’t even be allowed in the play store after this honestly. Too many security issues and while yes it’s in beta, the security issues alone damage their reputation completely. If Nothing were to relaunch this app with Sunbird, adoption will be incredibly low. I believe for many the trust with Sunbird is gone entirely. However, if Nothing still wants to move forward with their own chats app partnering with someone else or bringing it in-house, while being fully transparent as to what occurred here, what mistakes they learned from etc.. Adoption may be better, especially if the app is a success and users continue to recommend it and ultimately trust it. Though as noted in my other replies, I’m not sure there’s much of a reason to continue forward with their own chat app now.

  • NHN replied to this.
  • NHN likes this.

    Riien Tbh, I truly believe they already knew there were privacy issues, let’s be honest in this sphere brands that sell on this level, do not have a take a word for it mindset & even if that was believable of which I do not, what does that show Nothing to be, seriously naïve or just so thirsty to be the big thing of the moment, they ignored huge security concerns of there users, that is just wrong & tbh it’s the same mindset towards users as the previous brand he headed, he needs a bit of a wake up call tbh.

    Instead of messing around with apps like this, he should be fixing the issues with the products that actually have on the market that so far 4 months later still don’t have a fix.

    Anonymous340 The app, imho is & was a complete waste of time, the relaying method for iMessage was doomed to fail as apple would have made changes to block this usability in some shape or form & I for one don’t need another chat app, it’s just an ego app for nothing & tbh it serves zero purpose overall but to Nothing owners, WhatsApp does everything we all need as does iMessage.

    Fix the hardware then worry about side apps like this, I prefer a fully working touchscreen to this tomfoolery.

    Anonymous340 Back in the day I used to use a desktop software ICQ iirc to use all my chat apps like aol, MSN, etc, which today the equivalent is Beeper, I truly see this as a a good idea as all these messaging apps it’s bit cluttered, so if it was that secure & still held all messages in the residing apps still to view should beeper disappear, then I see that as a viable existence as it houses all within the same app, whereas this app apart from privacy problems has zero benefits overall, they’re different tbh, Beeper is a sound idea but is it secure, that’s the question.

    Rob ⚡️ Smart move Rob, I found the iMessage works well, bit of a delay, but nothing serious. Few privacy concerns about the end-to-end encyption, but I have no doubt this will be rectified. Couldn’t get RCS working because of the issues on Sunbird’s side. The transparency with the community is a staple pillar of why I am a fan of the company, and that you strive for quality over a product rollout that may be futher refinement then expected.

    Looking forward to the future updates 💪

    • NHN replied to this.

      Anonymous340 No, the responsibility for this fiasco rests on Nothing, esp it’s experienced founder.

      Nothing had far more at stake, esp being a new brand, & it should have done far more due diligence.

      Just pinning the responsibility on Sunbird for claiming something reflects deeply on the naivety of Nothing.

      Like it or not the reputation of N HAS been tarnished.

      A good fallout of this entire episode would be for N to stop trying flashy things & buckle down to iron out the shortcomings/bugs in NP 2 & NP1 of which the community posts are full of.

      N’s reputation as a company will rest on how good their phones are & not on accessories like beer/clothing/CMF etc.

      Us owners/community members need to be supportive of GENUINE efforts at improving the phones, not by cheering wildly everything they do & glossing over goof ups but by being objective & clear eyed of what they’re upto.

      As a senior I would advise them to now sincerely make efforts to improve the phones.

      The rest can wait.

        aarond203 Transparency, I think you’re on the wrong thread as there’s been zero of that over this fiasco tbh, they’ve been about as transparent as a black hole.

          Gun_Put That is one of the best replies I’ve seen in this community, honestly, absolutely wholeheartedly agree with everything you’ve said & absolutely on point.

          Nothing need to concentrate on fixing the silly bugs that have plagued us for months on end now.

          Do they not realise how it looks when they spend marketing etc time on a Nothing beer that nobody will buy, but don’t acknowledge or respond to mounting issues with there hardware & then this fiasco over a pointless app, where is the morality in this.

          Spend this time to actually be “transparent” honest about the issues we’re facing.

          I’ve reported & many others have numerous problems & they’ve not once responded or acknowledged any of us, that is arrogant & irresponsible.

          I commend your post, as I’ve been saying this for weeks now.

          NHN Mate, it would be worst if nothing was said at all. Maybe transparency was the wrong word to use in this case, but at least they’re owning up and raising their hands at the fact it wasn’t ready with the community.

          It’s Nothing’s app, but its Sunbird’s backend ment to be powering it, and it’s clearly got some issues to be worked on it, especially on privacy. I’m not sure how I feel about Sunbird’s platform. I like the idea, but how it gets implemented is a different kettle of fish, that not everyone is going to like it.

            Gun_Put Responsibility is certainly a two way street here. Sunbird had many faults, Nothing slapped their brand on it, (and to be clear the developer was named “Nothing Partnerships”, VS “NOTHING TECHNOLOGY LIMITED”*, indicating much of the work here was not completed by Nothing themselves rather through the partnership), and Nothing has to speak transparently to what occurred, what went wrong, and how Nothing will address this going forward. However, I still believe a lot of what Sunbird sold Nothing was smoke and mirrors. Embellishing the iMessage capabilities and level of encryption being utilized. If we take the Nothing Chats app here out of the equation, which is really just a UI overlay onto Sunbirds app itself, the Sunbird team has a lot more to address. Their website is incredibly misleading. As soon as you navigate to their home page you’re hit with many references to “Secure & Private End-to-End Encryption. ‍Secure, confidential messaging” indicating that their platform is truly secure. Yet that couldn’t be further from the truth. You can shoot holes in the Sunbird privacy/security page all day long after digging into their platform and seeing how it really works/doesn’t work following the chats release. As I stated before, should Nothing have vetted this app in greater detail, absolutely. However, in these partnerships, many times the partner isn’t fully transparent about their terms, their services, etc.. I wouldn’t be surprised if Nothing has legal grounds here to file lawsuits against Sunbird unless their terms were loosely outlined which would point more fault to Nothing. Nothing has to be transparent to the community and yes, Nothing has to take ownership of what occurred. However, Sunbird itself was the primary issue here and Sunbird has a lot to own up to.

            aarond203 Agreed, while it was marketed as Nothing’s app and the front end is Nothing UI overlay, with the beta aimed at Nothing’s Phone (2) and Phone (2) users, the backend platform powering the entire app and functionality is super sketchy. Sunbird has a lot to address here regardless of how transparent Nothing can be about these issues. Nothing can and I’m sure will address the Nothing community regarding what occurred here but they can’t speak to everything going on at Sunbird as that was simply the partner here. A partner that ultimately burned them with a poorly architected platform.

              Anonymous340 Exactly, maybe they will address it in a post or the next quarterly update on YT next year. To be honest, a product like this would have been better when Sunbird’s offical app was released publicly, at least the API’s and overall platform would be in such a state that other 3rd parties/partners can utilized their more ‘polished, tried and tested’ tech. But all these types of platforms (Sunbird, Beeper, etc.) are in the beta/closed testing phase, so it seems a bit pointless to drop a product like this right now. Would that be a fair enough assessment?

              I like what Nothing is going for, just perhaps it was a bit rushed. And it perhaps contributed and forced Apples hands to implement RCS next year. That begs the question, will they end up just dropping the Sunbird platform altogether and make the Chats app a RCS-powered Google Messages alternative in their own image?

                aarond203 Right!? That’s my question as well. Do they just make their own in-house, without a partnership now. OR do they just leave everything up to Google Messages + Apple in 2024. I’m guessing most users will still prefer just using Google Messages or another app versus a standalone Nothing Chats app unless Nothing offers something more compelling with more features overall.

                I dunno man. Google Messages is class, but I’m open to the idea of a Nothing-skinned messaging app, and a phone dialler as well. But it has to be as feature rich as Google’s phone and messaging apps, and they can add their own flair to it (ulitise glyph interface, animations, etc.) in order for it to attract users. And not to have it locked to those in-house apps, cause while they are Nothing apps, users should have the choice.

                As long as it stays consistant with the design language and the philosophy, I’m happy, because its what makes it stand out compared to others, and it works well consistently. I used to think that OxygenOS was the best OS implementation of Android, but NothingOS is the top dog in my opinion, and in a short space of time as well. 👌

                  aarond203 Would be cool to see the Nothing Chats app setup similar to BlackBerry Hub, centralized location for all chat apps, similar to beeper as some noted. However at this point to make this truly secure and a much better platform, Nothing should just bring this in-house and cut out the third party partners.

                  Also totally agree, NothingOS is so good. I swap phones a LOT but I always come back to the Nothing Phone (2) and NothingOS. It’s so smooth and overall fits my everyday the best.

                    Anonymous340 The combination of the hardware and the software working so cohesively together makes it an easy recommendation, phone(2) is up there as one of the best phones of the year.

                    If they can fix a few things here and there (The quick look widgets that only shows events from the main calendar and not other calendars 🙄 for example) and keep building on the OS by keeping it simple, I don’t see myself changing phone brands again

                      Sunbird App has now pulled their app following the security concerns. Their site doesn’t mention the removal of the app, but it is no longer available in the play store.

                        NHN From my experience man, I’ve had no issues, so I can’t complain, and I think it’s the general consensus among most users. For the hardware alone, it’s surely in the conversation, no? Maybe I’m missing something here..