Creepy or Cool? How to Make Your Facebook Chats Anonymous
Anonymous messaging is all the rage right now, especially with teenagers. Let’s face it: To the kids, Facebook and Twitter aren’t (and never were) the technology phenomenons we saw them as. For teenagers, many social media platforms that adults frequent are “totally lame.” (Um, do the kids still say “lame?”) So they’re looking for something a little more exciting. A little more experiential. A little more anonymous.
Whoo is an app that you can use to anonymously message your Facebook friends via text or even audio. Yep, you can send anonymous voice messages with voice distortion tools right in the app. There’s also a group chat function so you can join and start anonymous group chats with anyone in your contacts list. If you want, you can even choose to reveal your identity to the person who you’re chatting with.
Call us old-fashioned or nostalgic, but the first place our heads go when we think of anonymous messaging is secret admirers. Notes dropped in lockers signed with “Love, XOXO.” Right? But this technology can be used for more than that, like sending a note of encouragement or asking for an honest opinion about something.
And, of course, if you’ve ever had a secret admirer or even a pen pal you’ve never met, you know that talking to someone anonymously has a special sort of excitement to it. Whoo is finding new ways to tap into that excitement.
Anonymous messaging is not for practicality. It’s not for asking what your boyfriend needs from the grocery store or how your mom’s doctor’s appointment went. It’s for adding a bit of fun and mystery to our messaging, which is tricky in a world where every person has at least three online profiles. Whoo will be available in the App Store soon.
Do you think Whoo and other anonymous messaging apps are creepy or cool? Let us know in the comments!