Sarahah: 'honesty first' secret app goes viral, takes the web world by storm

The web world has been caught by a storm and you heard it right, it is called Sarahah. Sarahah is buzz word around the global internet circles with millions of web users getting pop up alerts about the application on their facebook feeds or Snapchat pages. The tech freaks are inquisitive to know what Sarahah is all about. You may have seen hundreds and thousands of posts shared by your friends via Sarahah. Wondering what is it all about? Let's get deep insight into decoding the Sarahah magic.

The concept of the application is so popular that it was ranked one on Apple App Store in over 30 countries in July. Sarahah has taken over people’s life by storm and people have started linking the Sarahah profiles to Snapchat stories. As per a BBC report, the messaging app has over 300 million users already. So what exactly is this app and why is it going viral?

Here is what you need to know about Sarahah:

1) What is Sarahah app?

According to the description provided on the Google Play Store “Sarahah helps people self-develop by receiving constructive anonymous feedback.”  The word means ‘honesty’ in Arabic, although this honesty is delivered anonymously. The app is available in English as well as Arabic for iOS and Android users.

2) So how does Sarahah app work?

Just like other apps, after Sarahah is successfully downloaded, it will ask you to set up an account. Put in the required details like username, name, email, and a password. This messaging app doesn’t require your mobile number, as the idea is to stay anonymous.

Once logged in, you can share your Sarahah link on Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp or copy the link and post it to a different social network. So, anyone who has the link will be able to send you messages. This could be friends, even strangers who are on the app or those who have not yet downloaded the app.

For sending a message, a user has to click on the link, which will open a text box with a message, “Leave a constructive message.” Obviously, the constructive part is lost on most folks. People can type in their message and hit send. When a user receives the message, they just get the text and don’t know who sent this particular message.

2) What else does Sarahah offer? Is it like a regular messaging app?

No, this app is not like a regular messaging app.The app does not offer anything more than sending a message to anyone by being unknown. There are only messages, search, explore and profile tabs on the app. Options like all received, sent and favourite messages appear in ‘Messages’ tab. When you receive a message you can favourite it or block the user or even report it.

The ‘Favorite’ tab shows messages where you have tapped the heart symbol. The ‘sent’ option shows all the messages that have been sent. Meanwhile ‘Search’ tab lets you search for people to send them anonymous messages. Next up, there’s an ‘Explore’ tab which isn’t live yet.

3) What are the privacy options?

There is not much that can help the users from getting messages. A user can report a message, block the user. Further, a person can decide to become invisible by going on the option of ‘Appear in search’ and disabling it. Another setting ensures that non-registered users can’t message you on the app. The app shows four icons below each message – a red flag to report message, block icon, reply, and a heart icon to mark a message as favourite.

4) So is it worth using such an app?

Sarahah is, for now, masquerading as a fun app among friends who send irritating messages to each other by staying anonymous. But these things can take a u-turn anytime and get out of control. The internet still remains a place which brings out the worst in people and with anonymous messaging, there are grave risks attached.