'Confide' is Like Snapchat for Text Messages

With the image-based Snapchat reaching huge levels of popularity with its ephemeral image and video messaging, new app Confide looks to offer the same type of secure, self-destructing messaging for text.

The app allows users to send messages to anyone with an email address -- prompting those users to download the app -- and conceals the contents of messages until they swipe to select it. It also alerts senders when screenshots are attempted and sends read receipt messages so senders know when their message is read.

The company is pitching Confide as an app for business executives and others to send messages to each other that they would prefer HR or legal departments not find out about.

Gigaom writes:

Brod added that Confide is different from Snapchat and other disappear apps in that it connects potential users through their email addresses, not by searching their phone contacts. This means that if someone sends a message to a person who doesn’t have the app, they will receive an email that informs them there is a message from the first person waiting for them in the app.

To address the issue of screenshots, which can provide a way to preserve disappearing messages, Confide uses a “wand” feature that requires recipients to pass their fingers over the message to reveal additional words. The app also includes a notice feature, common among other disappear apps, that alerts the sender if the recipient took a screenshot of the message.

Confide for iPhone is a free download from the App Store. [Direct Link]