What is all the excitement about secret text messages? These apps are available for Androids and iOS phones. These apps are available on iTunes and in the Google Play Store, where smartphone users are able to buy, download and install them, and then begin using them immediately. These apps allow you to be able to use send and receive text messages in secret – hence, the name of many of these apps, such as the Secret Text App.
Some websites compare these secret text messaging apps to Snapchat, the picture-messaging app that allows recipients to view them for just a few seconds. If you are a parent worried about your child’s activities, taking screenshots won’t be possible, according to Yahoo.com. While some of these apps began as business applications, they have since been discovered and taken over by private individuals who have chosen or need to keep a part of their lives confidential.
How the Secret Text App Works
These apps work by requiring the recipient to swipe their hand over their phone screen so they can see the message. If you or your child try to take a screenshot of the message, the sender is notified that someone tried to take a picture. As soon as your child reads the message, the sender is notified, and then the read message is deleted.
This app actually came into being when two professionals needed to discuss a fellow employee in private, without the other employee knowing. They could not name this person in their messages for several reasons, therefore they created the disappearing text message app. Now, however, teens and young adults have grabbed onto this app for reasons of their own.
What Secret Texting Apps Do
Think about it. Your teen is creating their own life separate from you, just as they are supposed to do. This means that, when they start connecting with friends and spending more time with them than with you, you’re going to see them telling you less and less about their life. They may decide to take this to the point that they find and download a secret text app to their phone, just so they can keep some events private – such as liking someone in their algebra class or sharing that first kiss.
Of course, some teens may have darker reasons for downloading a secret texting app – these teens may be involved in cyberbullying or other activities. Because secret messages are available to recipients for such a short time period, things that are said can be kept under wraps.
Secret Text App for iPhone
Apple has the CoverMe app for iPhone. This messaging app is described as “secure,” allowing users to share photos, messages and videos. CoverMe also has what is described as an “impenetrable vault” to protect the user’s contacts, messages, documents, call logs, diaries, notes, passwords and other data from others, according to iTunes. What does CoverMe do?
º Enables private texting.
º Enables users to make secure phone calls.
º Contains encrypted safe photo vault for video and picture storage.
º Secret Contact Support.
This app is free and can be installed on iOS5 phones or later.
Secret Texting Apps for Android
Don’t think Android has been left out of the secret messaging app – Private Space is a “privacy protection app” that enables users to hide call logs, messages and contact lists from others, according to the Google Play Store. Private Space works by:
º Creating a personal space on an Android phone enables users to hide chosen contacts.
º All incoming and outgoing messages from chosen contacts will be stored in the hidden space, where they will be inaccessible to others.
º These calls and messages don’t appear in the call log or text message box.
º Private Space “hides” itself behind an icon that prevents others from knowing it is on the user’s phone.
º The only person who knows of the existence of Private Space is the person who installed it – your child.
º Can alert the user with a dummy SMS tone so others won’t know a secret message has just been received by the user.
º Your child can hide or close Private Space quickly by simply shaking the phone – no need to click a series of keys to hide its presence.
If you are concerned about your child’s activities, you need to know about the capabilities of this app.
Look at Each Secret Text Message App
You need to know what secret text apps are available for download and installation on iPhones and Android phones. Here they are:
º Hide My Calls – Android
º Hide My Texts – Invisible – Android
These two apps “hide” behind an innocent-looking baseball or purse icon. Only your child knows what that icon is for. Your child can choose who goes into the contact lists for these apps. Message and call alerts come up as a “software update available” message.
Hide My Text – Invisible can only be launched when your child taps their phone’s black screen, which causes a button to appear on the screen. Because you won’t know the app password or where to enter it, you’ll get a system error.
If you are suspicious about your child’s phone activity, you need to know about the possible decoy icons behind which they can hide, according to HubPages. Why are decoy apps used? They aren’t used for anything honest – if your child wanted you to see what they were up to, they wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of installing a secret text app.
Apple is very strict about third-party apps. At this time, there are few iOS alternatives other than CoverMe. This app won’t create a decoy icon, which makes it a little easier to find out what they are doing.
Message Apps Like Snapchat
Most people know what Snapchat does – it sends pictures and videos that, upon being viewed, “disappear.” These images are of the “now you see it, now you don’t” variety because they vanish after only a few seconds. Or they seem to vanish. Like Snapchat, messages can disappear after being read. These include:
º TigerText. This is intended for businesses and works on desktop computers as well as on smartphones, according to yahoo.com.
º Silent Text allows users to schedule text expiration times.
º Confide. Uses a swipe to reveal an operation that reveals the message. It may also prevent screenshots from being taken.
º Burn Note. Like Confide, it uses a slide to read function. Messages disappear shortly after being viewed.
º Cyber Dust. Users can send texts, stickers, photos and your location. All will disappear half a minute after being read.
What is Invisible Text?
This is the secure messaging app that keeps your messages private from others, according to Goinvis. As with other secret text messaging apps, the messages on Invisible Text will self-destruct after so many seconds. Goinvis points out that messages are not saved on the company servers, enabling messages to be truly confidential. Invisible Text works in this way:
º The user writes and sends a message. The message is encoded before delivery to the recipient, which ensures confidential receipt.
º The recipient reads the message – and has to be quick to do so because the message will disappear permanently after a time period of the user’s choice.
º After the timer expires, the message vanishes forever. Recipients don’t have to worry about deleting messages. Nor do they have to worry about having their privacy violated. (If anyone is up to something they don’t want others to find out about, this is probably the best app for that.)
Secret App for iPhone
Secret is made especially for the iPhone. It’s free. Users can say whatever they want to say and stay anonymous, according to iTunes.
According to iTunes, users must be at least 17 years old to download and use Secret. This app contains references to alcohol, drug and tobacco use or to references of these items. It also contains crude humour and mild profanity. Users will be able to take part in “mild” cartoon or fantasy violence, which makes it unsuitable for younger users. It also contains mature and suggestive themes, with mild sexual content and some nudity. This looks like an app that allows users to say things they may not feel free to say in other areas of their lives.