The blue bubble vs. inexperienced bubble battle continues to warmth up. As if Google committing to a multi-year advertising marketing campaign for Apple to “get the message” wasn’t sufficient, smartphone maker Nothing is launching a brand new app that appears to carry iMessage to Android.
In a weblog put up, the corporate introduced Nothing Chats, a brand new app that permits customers to ship an iMessage from an Android cellphone. The corporate says that it was in a position to make this occur by a partnership with Sunbird, which additionally provides its personal app to make use of iMessage on Android. Based on the corporate, the Nothing Chats app will likely be out there on Friday and solely be out there for Telephone(2) customers.
In the event you’re within the US, Canada, UK or EU and have a Telephone (2), you may obtain the Nothing Chats app on the Play Retailer from Friday. The app is at present in Beta, and we’re working laborious to carry Nothing Chats to extra locations. If it’s not out there in your nation simply but, join our publication and we’ll let as quickly as it’s. Extra options are coming down the road, so head to our web site for all the particulars.
Whereas customers will be capable of ship an iMessage, not all iMessage options will likely be out there on the Nothing Chats app at launch. Whereas text-based messages and uncompressed photos and movies will likely be supported, customers received’t be capable of edit messages or use the Tapback response characteristic. The iMessage expertise additionally breaks if one consumer within the group chat doesn’t use iMessage — however that’s the identical deal for iPhone customers already.
The corporate additionally launched a video on YouTube exhibiting off the brand new app. Nothing CEO Carl Pei stated that the app received’t “change the world,” however that they constructed it with the intention to “begin a dialog.” It’s additionally fascinating that the corporate is ready till Friday to launch the app — I ponder in the event that they wish to see if Apple reacts negatively. Pei even insinuates as a lot firstly of the video when he says “I’m working beneath the belief that Tim Cook dinner goes to look at this video.”
It’s additionally fairly apparent because the thumbnail of the video says “Sorry Tim.” You’ll be able to watch the video on YouTube under:
The partnership is an fascinating one, particularly since customers might want to belief each Nothing and Sunbird to maintain their messaging information personal. Whereas Apple considers privateness “a basic human proper” and builds it into its providers as a core characteristic now, Nothing and Sunbird’s stances on privateness aren’t as well-known (or maybe nicely marketed).
Regardless, if Nothing’s objective was to begin a dialog, they’re seemingly going to realize simply that. How lengthy and the way impactful the dialog will likely be stays to be seen. Google has been attempting to lift this dialog for some time now, so we’ll see if Nothing has extra success.
