Amazing Apps: Private Sharing Apps

With over 800 million people actively using Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, sharing photos, locations and status updates is an everyday occurrence for many people across the world. However, as American high school students apply for college and recent college graduates look for jobs, recruiters and employers are using the internet as an important reference tool.  Many parents are concerned that one inappropriate photo or tweet from their teen can potentially hinder their future.

There are many apps that market themselves as ways to share photos, videos, or chats privately.

1.       CallSnap: CallSnap is an Android app launched by TIP Solutions that allows call recipients to instantly respond to an incoming call with a photo. The caller will receive a text message announcing ‘Busy right now…CallSnap photo on the way!’ It is perfect for any situation where answering a phone may be difficult, and still allows users to send a photo without posting it to social media.

 

2.       Snapchat: Users can snap a photo or a video, add a caption to it and then send it to all of their friends, letting them know what they are doing. Snapchat photos and videos are deleted after 1-10 seconds of being sent to the recipient, which allows users to show off what they are doing, while the evidence is erased in seconds.

 

3.       Instagram Direct: The most popular app for visual communication, Instagram has improved their app with the option to send private photos and videos to select friends.  Users are allowed to send this direct image or video to up to 15 friends at a time and can then view who has liked and commented on the direct message. This new feature helps users share those special or relevant moments with a smaller group of friends who can appreciate it as well.     

 

4.     Wink!: Wink! allows users to photo chat with their friends on their phone by sending photos with captions to any of their contacts. It also allows recipients to comment on those photos.  Each photo lasts as long as the user wants and is private from anyone but friends. 

As with anything you or your teens do on the internet, you should still exercise caution. No app or website is truly 100% private, and you should be sure to read each app's terms of service carefully to make sure you know how your privacy is protected.