diff --git a/app/src/main/java/de/kuschku/util/irc/format/IrcFormatDeserializer.java b/app/src/main/java/de/kuschku/util/irc/format/IrcFormatDeserializer.java
index 9c57fca6944b70b15bf0c7dce0382db7b888ee01..89984debdb02f9b9bd26ae0eefc0cc1e73b97e7c 100644
--- a/app/src/main/java/de/kuschku/util/irc/format/IrcFormatDeserializer.java
+++ b/app/src/main/java/de/kuschku/util/irc/format/IrcFormatDeserializer.java
@@ -110,9 +110,9 @@ public class IrcFormatDeserializer {
      * @param str mIRC formatted String
      * @return a CharSequence with Android’s span format representing the input string
      */
-    @Nullable
+    @NonNUll
     public CharSequence formatString(@Nullable String str) {
-        if (str == null) return null;
+        if (str == null) return "";
 
         SpannableStringBuilder plainText = new SpannableStringBuilder();
         FormatDescription bold = null;