Confide, The 'Snapchat For Professionals', Now Has An Even Better App For Android
Confide, a private messaging app that's being marketed as the "Snapchat for professionals," launches on Android today.
The app is basically the same as the original iPhone version that launched in January, letting you send self-destructing text messages to your contacts. But the company's co-founder Howard Lerman told Business Insider in an interview that he thinks the Android version is even better.
Before we dive into the Android version though, here's a quick primer on how Confide works. The app lets you send other Confide users text messages that they can only view once before they disappear for good. The messages are blacked out, so you have to swipe your finger over the text to read it. This method makes it tough for someone to take a screenshot of a message since it's nearly impossible to swipe over the whole thing at once.
Here's what it looks like when you get a new Confide message:
Confide for Android does all that, with the added benefit of letting you quickly copy text from one app and sending it to one of your Confide contacts. For example, if someone sends you an email with some juicy gossip, you can use the standard share button in Android to send the text through Confide.
Like this:
Lerman said Confide for Android is also more secure than a lot of private messaging apps because messages aren't stored on your device's flash drive. Instead, messages are stored in the phone's temporary memory and deleted when you close the app. It's a good workaround, considering WhatsApp got into some trouble a few weeks ago after someone discovered messages weren't securely stored on Android devices' flash drives, making them relatively easy to access.
Finally, Confide for Android version gives you more control of the kinds of notifications you get, so you're not constantly flooded with alerts.
Confide may seem pretty basic right now, but Lerman hinted at a longer term goal for the service, especially when it comes to sharing stuff from outside the app like you can with emails through the Android version. For example, imagine forwarding a self-destructing file to a coworker or other business contact, knowing no one else will be able to see it.
Confide is one of several apps trying to figure out the growing trend of anonymous social networks. After years of publishing everything we do online in public and with our names attached, apps like Confide, Secret, Whisper, Wickr, and so on are trying to tap into our desire to share what we really want to say without consequence.
In Confide's case, the company is trying to bring the confidence of face-to-face meetings and off the record conversations to the digital world. Everything you put into an email can be thrown back in your face later, but Confide's promise is that you can say what you want without having to worry about repercussions later.
Confide is a free app for Android. Download it here.