Nothing Phone (2) becomes first Android smartphone to receive official Apple iMessage support

Nothing has developed its alternative to Sunbird, a third-party app designed to bring iMessage support to Android. Officially, only iPhones can send iMessages between each other. While Google continues to encourage Apple to make iMessage compatible with Android by adopting the Rich Communications Services (RCS) standard, Nothing's has sought to side-step Apple's intransigence.

According to Nothing, it has developed Nothing Chats in partnership with Sunbird, albeit without the latter's waitlist exclusivity. For reference, Nothing Chats will go live on the Google Play Store from November 17. However, Nothing will limit the application's proliferation to the Phone (2), which starts at US$699 on Amazon. Please note that you must be comfortable with linking your Apple iCloud account to Nothing Chats for the application to integrate with iMessage.

In an FAQ, Nothing explains that it does not cache messages on servers, although Nothing, Sunbird or a malicious third party could theoretically access personal data. Also, Nothing Chats is missing a few iMessage features for now, such as emoji reactions, messaging editing and read receipts. Reportedly, Nothing and Sunbird will add these eventually, but it is unclear when the Phone (1) will be compatible with Nothing Chats. Nothing is also limiting Nothing Chats usage to Canadian, EU, UK and US users for the time being.