Sunbird brings iMessage to Android again. Should you use it?
Sunbird's iMessage app for Android is back at $2.99 a month. Here is how it works and what you give up to use it.
Sunbird opened its iMessage app for Android to everyone on August 5. It is on Google Play with a 14-day free trial. After that it costs $2.99 a month or $24.99 a year.
The app puts iMessage, RCS and regular texts in one inbox. Sunbird says you get blue bubbles, group chats, reactions, read receipts, typing indicators and full-quality photos and video with your iPhone friends.
There is one catch in how it looks to other people. Sunbird doesn't register your phone number with iMessage, so iPhone users see your messages coming from your Apple Account email address.
How it works
You sign in with an Apple Account. Sunbird says your password is used once to set up your session and then deleted. From there, Apple's own Messages software runs your iMessage session on Sunbird's systems, the same way it would run on a Mac. You don't need a Mac or any other Apple device.
That means your messages pass through Sunbird's servers on the way to and from Apple. Sunbird says messages are encrypted on your phone and in transit, and that photos and videos are deleted from its systems within 72 hours. Apple's end-to-end encryption only covers the last step to the iPhone. Sunbird does not claim end-to-end encryption from your Android phone to the person you are texting.
Sunbird's history
In November 2023, security researchers found that Sunbird's app stored messages and media without encryption, and Sunbird shut it down within days. It came back as a limited beta in 2024 before opening to everyone this August.
A few weeks after that first shutdown, Apple blocked Beeper Mini, another app that brought iMessage to Android. Apple hasn't said anything about the new Sunbird, but it has cut off apps like this before.
Should you use it?
It depends on what matters more to you. If you want to be in your friends' blue-bubble group chats and you are comfortable with another company handling your Apple Account session and your messages, Sunbird does that. If privacy matters more, skip it.
If you are open to a different app, WhatsApp and Signal work on both iPhone and Android and encrypt every message end to end. Your friends need to use the same app.
Sunbird, WhatsApp and Signal all run over data or Wi-Fi, so they work on any Vetra plan.
Vetra Mobile is not affiliated with Sunbird or Apple. Images: Sunbird.
