With the multitude of ways to communicate and share content online everyone is getting more and more security-conscious. From a personal conversation with your girlfriend to sharing confidential information with coworkers and business partners, everything that goes online has a chance of getting intercepted by third-parties.
Cyber Dust is a free messaging app that lets you chat and share media content with your contacts via self-destructing messages. The app is available for Android, iOS and its Windows Phone version is a new arrival in the Windows Store.
Messages vanish into thin air
30 seconds after viewing a message it automatically self-destructs (aka. erases itself from existence). The same happens if the recipient doesn’t read the message within 12 hours. No record of the message remains…..anywhere. All you’re left with are ‘sent’ and ‘read’ notifications.
This may seem strange and you might ask yourself how do you keep up with a conversation? Cyber Dust lets you pin any sent message just in case you need to remember what the conversation was about. Obviously this completely cancels the strong security implemented through disappearing messages (at least for your own), but lets face it – most of the times your messages will be of no value except for you and the person you’re chatting with. No one sends super-secret, super-private messages all the time.
Cheaters get caught
Since the only way you could practically hold on to a self-destructing message before it gets erased is by taking a screenshot of it, the app promises it will notify you if someone actually does that. Â Perhaps the most important aspect of this feature is discouraging the recipient from doing it in the first place.
Should an important secret or some indecent photos you just shared with someone be made public at least you have plenty of time to panic before they go viral. Or maybe don’t do it in the first place, at least not with people you don’t trust. What a great idea!
Getting more social
Cyber Dust is not just a secure messaging app, it also lets you expand your interactions beyond your own contacts and connect with celebrities and other influencers, giving you the possibility to follow them like you would on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other social networks.
You can also create custom groups and send them mass messages (called ‘blasts’ within the app). You can blast pretty much anything, a simple message (with an option to tag your location), videos, photos, emojis, stickers….etc.
The photos you share are editable – you can add custom text or draw on top of them like a 3-year old through the simple built-in editor.
Conclusion
Cyber Dust is a unique mix of secure messaging and social networking offering a neat way to chat, but only if you value your privacy so much that you actually enjoy the self-destructing messages. Of course you can always pin a message for later reference but you’d have to consciously make that decision for every message you send. If the concept sounds appealing download the app onto your phone from the links below and give it a try!
Are you a Cyber Dust user or you’ve tried the app but gave up on it? Let us know what’s your love/hate relationship with the app!
Cyber Dust for Windows Phone – Download
Cyber Dust for Android – Download
Cyber Dust for iOS – Download
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