Do you remember the Nothing Chats debacle from last year? Because Nothing Chats was built on Sunbird’s architecture, it had so many security flaws that it was removed from the Google Play Store along with Sunbird’s own messaging app. Well, Sunbird is back and hoping users will forget about the past and give it a second chance.
Sunbird has announced that it is starting to invite people again to try its app, which lets Android users send iMessages. They say invitations will go out a little at a time starting today.
In their announcement, Sunbird admits there were problems with security before but says it has completely changed how the app works. It no longer stores messages temporarily like it used to. All messages are now encrypted so no one can read them except the sender and receiver.
Sunbird knows people were unhappy with security issues in the past. It promises the new version of the app puts users’ privacy first. Messages only exist as encrypted data and are deleted within two days. Communication between the app and Sunbird’s servers also uses secure connections.
Not everything adds up though. Sunbird mentions hiring an advisor from Google but his current job is actually somewhere else. While changes sound good on paper, only time will tell if Sunbird truly has privacy under control this time. Given its history, people may want to be cautious about trusting the app with their personal messages.
