Sunbird Messaging is officially back on the app market after a troubled past. The company reintroduced its chat software to the Google Play Store following an early access testing phase. This tool is designed to let mobile users send blue bubble texts to iPhone owners instead of the standard green ones. It brings different text formats together into one unified inbox for people on non-Apple phones.
The app promises better privacy and charges a monthly fee
Sunbird was originally available from late 2022 to late 2023. The company shut down the software because of severe privacy flaws. The old version sent login details unencrypted over the internet, and employees had direct access to personal conversations.
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The software returned for an invite-only test in April 2024, but it is now open to the public. Sunbird claims that it no longer stores messages on its own servers and that texts remain encrypted on your device. You can read more about these changes on the official security page provided by the developer.
To make the system work, you still have to sign in with an Apple account. The company states that it only uses these passwords once to create a session before destroying them. It is worth noting that texts sent through Sunbird will display your email address to the recipient instead of your phone number.
The messaging landscape has changed a lot since Sunbird first launched. Texting between an Android phone and an iPhone has gotten much better recently because default messaging platforms now support higher quality media and typing indicators. Because of those updates, Sunbird is essentially just offering a way to turn your chat bubbles blue. It combines standard texts, modern rich communication formats, and iMessage into one single inbox.
If you want to try the service, the developer offers a free trial for two weeks. After that period, the software requires a subscription of $2.99 per month or $24.99 per year. While the blue bubbles might appeal to some, paying a monthly fee just to change a chat color might be a hard sell for most users.
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