“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.

  • Log in with your existing Apple ID username or create a new account to start sending and receiving blue bubbles.

    So I need an apple ID to use this?

    Pass.

    If you’re a Phone (2) user in one of the select countries where Nothing Chats is available, you can download the messaging app from the Google Play Store.

    So it only works in a few countries?

    Pass.

    And it only works on one OEM’s phones?

    Massive Pass.

    • I recommend getting beeper it’s similar to sunbird although it is paid but they do open source all of their back end infrastructure. Beeper is essentially just a matrix client for a bunch of different chat service bridges.

      • Cheers for the heads up.

        beeper does look interesting but I am weary of sign up and we will tell you when you can join type apps.

        And this rings a few alarm bells for me:

        if you send a message from Beeper to a friend on WhatsApp, the message is encrypted on your Beeper client, sent to the Beeper web service, which decrypts and re-encrypts the message with WhatsApp’s proprietary encryption protocol.

        I would love for this to work but that alone has a host of issues around third party trust.

        New European legislation is coming into effect in 2024 and will force iMessage and WhatsApp to expose an interoperable end-to-end-encrypted API. Our servers are located in Europe, and we will switch to this open interface as soon as it is ready.

        Sadly, not being in the EU means I will likely pass on this but is sounds great for EU residents when the above is implemented.