It’s a common feeling. You’re out with friends, and you want to tell someone something important but don’t feel comfortable sharing it over the phone or in person. Instead, you send them an email message. But by the time they get back to you, your note is already gone, lost forever in cyberspace.
Enter PrivNote, a new app from the creators of Snapchat — that’s right, Snapchat — that allows you to send private messages that are “self destructing.” In other words, once they’ve been seen, your message disappears. That means no more awkward situations where you’re about to say something important but then realize you can’t remember what it was. An app such as pirvnota allows the person to keep a much quality notes with them and acces the files at any time of the day without worrying over other things. So if you are willing to control things and have better control on the other options. Than use this app and keep everything written down in one place.
You could also use this feature for a less nefarious purpose: if you have a crush on someone and want to talk to them but don’t want to be too obvious, you can send them a note that disappears once it has been read. And who knows? Maybe the recipient will reply, and your relationship will blossom into something beautiful. Or maybe he’ll throw your note away without reading it. Either way, you win.
When you launch the app, you’ll see a message asking you to confirm that you want to send a note. Tap Yes, and you’ll enter your note. Enter whatever you want, and it will disappear when it’s read. The only caveat is that there is a 5 second delay between writing the note and sending it. This is so that people can actually read the note before it vanishes. Once it’s sent, though, there’s nothing anyone else can do to stop it.
And yes, this also applies to replies. If the person who receives your note responds to it, their response will vanish as well.
This is a great idea, but I’m not sure how much I like the design of PrivNote (which I should point out is still in beta). It looks very similar to Snapchat, which I think is a mistake. There’s just something about the Snapchat aesthetic that feels fresh, while PrivNote feels very old school and clunky. Not that I’m complaining about Snapchat, because I love the app.
But for those who would rather not give up the Snapchat look, PrivNote provides a couple options for customization. When you first launch the app, you’ll see a slider at the top of the screen that lets you change some basic settings. You can choose your text size and whether or not the text color changes depending on your background. Then, you can customize the appearance of your note itself by selecting one of three themes.
These themes aren’t exactly subtle either. They each come with a different background, and all three contain a dark theme option as well.
If you really want to stand out, you can also pick a specific emoji to represent your note. The app comes with a few preloaded options, such as hearts, smileys, and exclamation points, but you can add custom emojis. To do so, tap the plus button in the bottom left corner, then select Emoji from the dropdown menu. From here, you can select any emoji you’d like to insert into your note.
There’s also an option to include a sticker in your note, but unfortunately, you can’t edit them. If you try to choose a sticker that isn’t already included, you’ll just see an empty space where the sticker should be. To add a sticker, you can either search for one using the search bar at the bottom of the screen, or you can open the sticker library inside the app. Here, you can view all of the stickers available, and you can even download additional ones directly through the app.
The stickers aren’t the only things you can customize. For every note you create, you can also change the font and style of the text. You can also adjust the opacity of your note.
Once you’ve set everything up, you can start creating notes. It couldn’t be easier! All you need to do is type your note, hit save, and you’ll immediately receive a notification letting you know that your note has been saved. You can then share your note with whomever you’d like. Just click the Share button, enter the name of the person you’d like to send the note to, and you’re done!
You can also attach files to your note, which makes it a little bit more complicated. First, you need to go into your notes and find the file you wish to attach. Then, you can open it up and drag it onto your note.
That’s pretty much the extent of the functionality in the app. There’s currently no way to delete your notes, nor is there a way to mark them as private. So if you decide to send a note to someone, make sure they don’t accidentally forward it to anyone else. It would be nice if you could send your notes to multiple recipients, instead of having to copy and paste the note.
Overall, I think PrivNote is a fun app, but its current lack of features makes it far from perfect. Still, I can understand the appeal of a service like this. People often share secrets online, and if anything goes wrong (like accidentally sending a note to the wrong person), it can be easy to forget about that embarrassing situation. A self-destructing note keeps your secret safe from prying eyes.
With enough polish, I think PrivNote could become an indispensable part of our everyday lives. Right now, however, it’s still missing some key features. And I’m not sure I see myself using it daily. As it stands, I think this app will find most of its users among teens and young adults, since it’s targeted towards teenagers and college students.