Sunbird, an iMessage app for Android, has announced to users that it will shut down "for now" amid major privacy concerns.

Whats sad is it doesn’t even take much knowledge of technology to know the whole of Sunbirds “product” was a terrible idea even outside of security concerns.

“Hey! I’ve got a brilliant idea for a product that absolutely could not fail!, lets reverse engineer one of the prime services of one of the most protectionist and litigious companies in the world and publicly advertise and try to sell it to their competition and potential users as some sort of magic compatibility layer”! What could possibly go wrong?

It was a worse idea than Dolphin thinking they were going to get away with trying to monetize their Nintendo emulator.

EDIT: I was mistaken about Dolphin looking to charge for their emulator when they put it up on Steam, as pointed out by a few folks in the comments. They were just looking to distribute it on the platform. Still seems like wishful thinking to me though when talking about something related to Nintendo and IP.

  • OrangeCorvus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    10·
    1 year ago

    But Nothing CEO told me there are no privacy concerns, everything is stored on my device. Could it have been a marketing trick? I thought we should trust CEO-bros blindly.

    Edit Aaaand they removed the video.

    • Teknikal@lemm.eeEnglish
      31·
      1 year ago

      The guys just a conartist one of the reasons I bought the Nothing phone 1 was the remarks no other phone would be on the horizon for a long time until they nailed it.

      About 2 months later phone 2 is the only one the company cares about and every phone 1 update seems buggier and more rushed than the last.

      I expect the same will happen to anyone with phone 2 when they inevitably spring a 3 out of nowhere.

  • Alchemy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    9·
    1 year ago

    I’m very not into tech or savvy, but this was a glaring red flag to me. Can’t believe they got as far as they did with the idea.

  • jcrabapple@infosec.pubEnglish
    5·
    1 year ago

    Isn’t it interesting how when you knowingly release an insecure product, people have security concerns.

  • Chloyster [She/Her]@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    5·
    1 year ago

    If you’re talking about the whole thing with dolphin almost being released on steam, it wasn’t going to cost money. They weren’t trying to monetize. They were just trying to have the download available on steam

    • flop_leash_973@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      13·
      1 year ago

      Ah, my mistake, I could have swore they had said somewhere they were going to charge for it.

      Still, putting it up on Steam even for free when talking about something related to Nintendo seems like wishful thinking.

  • metaphortune@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    I’ve said for the longest time, Apple could put iMessage on Android, charge for it, and make plenty of money (mine included). So I was very intrigued by Sunbird! But I took one look at Sunbird’s website and knew something was wrong. Maybe it was the lack of a clear idea for how they’ll make money or that they didn’t initially disclose the technology behind it.

    Suffice to say: I am not surprised by this.

  • improvisedbuttplug@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    Good

    It was a pretty bad idea, not only a privacy risk for users but for anyone those users interact with. You no longer get the guarantee that your iMessages are end to end encrypted since anyone using the service puts a man in the middle for everyone they communicate with.

  • CaptDust@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    It’s crazy that anyone allowed Nothing to move forward and announce their integration, while sunbird had to know this was an open risk. what a joke.