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Nothing Phone says it will hack into iMessage, bring blue bubbles to Android

arstechnica.com

121–130 of 175 posts

Re: Nothing Phone says it will hack into iMessage, bring blue bubbles to Android

#121
post #117

Looks like Nothing is partnering with a US-based third party called Sunbird to build this service. From Sunbird’s site ( https://sunbirdapp.com ): > Will the app be open source? > Some of the messaging community believes that software that is open source is more secure. It is our view that it is not. The more visibility there is into the infrastructure and code, the easier it is to penetrate it. By design, open sourc…

This reiterates the same fallacious argument large corporations use to put one over open-source. And since it sounds plausible to the layman, it is parroted by them. Quite shocking to see another example out and about.

Re: Nothing Phone says it will hack into iMessage, bring blue bubbles to Android

#122
post #117

Looks like Nothing is partnering with a US-based third party called Sunbird to build this service. From Sunbird’s site ( https://sunbirdapp.com ): > Will the app be open source? > Some of the messaging community believes that software that is open source is more secure. It is our view that it is not. The more visibility there is into the infrastructure and code, the easier it is to penetrate it. By design, open sourc…

How gross and disingenuous. If they want to keep their source proprietary to create a moat then just say so. Lying about open source software being shoddy and insecure just totally puts me off.

Re: Nothing Phone says it will hack into iMessage, bring blue bubbles to Android

#123
post #109

But how so? Encryption? Will it break at every other small change from Apple?

From other sites, it seems it uses a Mac Mini in a server room as a proxy for iMessage to accomplish this, with the massive drawback of having to provide Nothing your Apple ID credentials.

Yeah, no, fuck that. That's a disaster waiting to happen.

Re: Nothing Phone says it will hack into iMessage, bring blue bubbles to Android

#125
post #117

Looks like Nothing is partnering with a US-based third party called Sunbird to build this service. From Sunbird’s site ( https://sunbirdapp.com ): > Will the app be open source? > Some of the messaging community believes that software that is open source is more secure. It is our view that it is not. The more visibility there is into the infrastructure and code, the easier it is to penetrate it. By design, open sourc…

Comment from another poster (https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=pokey96) down below

> From other sites, it seems it uses a Mac Mini in a server room as a proxy for iMessage to accomplish this, with the massive drawback of having to provide Nothing your Apple ID credentials.

No thanks, I’m good.

Re: Nothing Phone says it will hack into iMessage, bring blue bubbles to Android

#126
post #116

It looks like this is powered by Sunbird: https://www.sunbirdapp.com . Another alternative for iMessage is Beeper: https://www.beeper.com/imessage They both have a waitlist at the moment, but Beeper seems to be opening up to a lot of new people.

I have Beeper. It works well, except that it doesn't support registering your phone number without an iPhone, so you can only use iMessage with an email address. I believe they are working on fixing that now.

Re: Nothing Phone says it will hack into iMessage, bring blue bubbles to Android

#127
post #109

But how so? Encryption? Will it break at every other small change from Apple?

From other sites, it seems it uses a Mac Mini in a server room as a proxy for iMessage to accomplish this, with the massive drawback of having to provide Nothing your Apple ID credentials.

How did they even think this was an acceptable solution? They must be high or something. Relaying my personal messages for blue bubbles...

Re: Nothing Phone says it will hack into iMessage, bring blue bubbles to Android

#128
post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because Google wants Apple to adopt RCS in order to prevent Android users in the United States from switching to iOS due to green/blue bubble social pressure.

I don't care what Google wants, I care about an open standard and ending vendor lockin. Did you think it was a problem when Microsoft refused to release MS Office for Apple as well, many years ago?

And I care about privacy and security.

Which is why any standard where end to end encryption is not mandatory is unacceptable.

Re: Nothing Phone says it will hack into iMessage, bring blue bubbles to Android

#129
post #117

Looks like Nothing is partnering with a US-based third party called Sunbird to build this service. From Sunbird’s site ( https://sunbirdapp.com ): > Will the app be open source? > Some of the messaging community believes that software that is open source is more secure. It is our view that it is not. The more visibility there is into the infrastructure and code, the easier it is to penetrate it. By design, open sourc…

How gross and disingenuous. If they want to keep their source proprietary to create a moat then just say so. Lying about open source software being shoddy and insecure just totally puts me off.

They are not wrong that it is easier to penetrate open source software, but in regards to a messaging app security is not a big issue due to the most risky stuff being handled by platform provided api and mobile operating systems having a modern security model.

Re: Nothing Phone says it will hack into iMessage, bring blue bubbles to Android

#130
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm happy to hear about any other open standard that you think might be better. The key is interoperability.

What's broken about the current way messaging landscape is?

The current scenario is so broken. You have multiple different platforms that do not interoperate with each other.

Different platforms have become the standard de facto in different regions of the world (iMessage in us, WhatsApp in Europe, WeChat in china, ..).

All of these platforms belong to private companies.

A sane landscape would be having platform interoperability, at least for the most common features and then let companies compete on features, not on user networks.

In Europe it is virtually impossible no to use WhatsApp, especially if you have kids. I don’t like it, but it’s one of the service I use the most, because I’m forced to.

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