Forget about frictionless sharing. People are turning to anonymous messaging apps to speak freely. We take a look at a few of the more popular mobile apps for secret sharing. Secret is all the buzz in Silicon Valley. Founded by former Google and Square employees, the app has a reputation of spreading tech industry gossip. When a post circulated that Evernote was going to be bought, it made it to tech blogs, prompting a denial from the company’s CEO Phil Libin.
SourceSecret is hoping to grow bigger and capitalize on SXSW with two new features. Share lets you post any Secret you see to Twitter, Facebook, SMS, or email. Nearby lets you opt in to seeing Secrets shared by people nearby, which could create an ad hoc community of users at SXSW. The two could draw more people into Secret and keep them there even if they don’t have friends on the app. Secret, an “anonymish” sharing app that lets you post thoughts and images without your name attached, only launched five weeks ago. But it spread like wildfire in Silicon Valley and has caused a renewed interest in anonymity after a decade where Facebook’s real names and authenticated identity reigned.
