How DropAsecret keeps you anonymous until you both say yes

DropAsecret is our app for anonymous messages. Its line is "Say what you cannot say out loud."

You get your own link, and people send you messages through it without saying who they are. You can reply, they can reply back, and no names show unless both of you agree. This post explains how that works, and what we built to keep it safe.

How it works

You pick a username and a colour, and your link is ready. It takes about a minute. Then you share it in your story, your bio or a group chat.

Anyone can open your link and send you a message, no account needed. Each sender shows up under a random nickname, like "Anonymous Fox 42", and the nickname is different for every conversation.

Most anonymous links stop at the message. DropAsecret keeps going. You can react and reply to anything you get, and the sender can come back to the same chat and answer. It stays anonymous the whole way.

There's more than text:

• Voice notes. Say it out loud instead of typing, in your own voice or through a voice mask. The mask is applied on your device before anything is sent, so we never receive your unmasked voice. The masks that hide your voice are free for everyone.
• Drops. One prompt on your link until a countdown ends. On the free plan, a Drop runs for up to 6 hours.
• Polls. A question with a few options. Anyone with your link can vote once, without an account, and votes are anonymous.

Names stay hidden until you both say yes

We call this Mutual Reveal.

Either person in a conversation can start it. The link owner can ask who the sender is, or the sender can offer to show who they are. The other person gets a private request and decides in private. Saying no just ends the request.

A name only shows when both of you say yes. Nobody can pay to see your name. That takes your yes.

When a sender agrees, they decide what the other person sees: a name they choose, their username if they have a link of their own, and their profile photo if they choose to show it. Never their email, phone number or anything else. The reveal applies to that one conversation only.

A few more rules keep it fair:

• A sender needs a free account to reveal, so the name shown is one they chose and agreed to.
• A "no" can't be worn down. If someone keeps asking and keeps hearing no, they have to wait before they can ask again.
• A reveal can be undone. Either person can ask to go back to anonymous, and if the other agrees, names are hidden again.

What anonymous means here

Here's what that means in practice.

The person you message never sees your name, email address, phone number or IP address, whether or not you're signed in. Notifications only say that something arrived, never what it says.

There are limits, and you should know them:

• What you write can give you away. Details only you would know, or the way you write, can identify you.
• A voice mask makes a voice harder to recognise, not impossible.
• You're anonymous to other users, not invisible to us. We keep limited data so replies can reach you and abuse can be limited. If a court or law enforcement agency lawfully requires it, we may have to hand over what we hold.

We never sell your data. For everything DropAsecret keeps, and why, see its privacy policy.

Safety stays in your hands

DropAsecret is for adults. You must be 18 or older to create a link or send a message.

We don't read or filter messages before they're delivered. People can speak freely, and that freedom has limits. So if you own a link, you decide what reaches you:

• Pause your link. Switch it off in Settings and nobody can send you new messages until you resume it.
• Block a sender. You can block someone without learning who they are. Blocking also closes the conversation.
• Close or delete. Close a conversation so no one can write in it, or delete it. Deleting removes the messages and voice notes for both people.
• Report a conversation. Pick a reason, such as harassment, a threat of harm, sexual content or spam. We save the reason and a copy of the latest messages so the report can be reviewed.

If you're the sender, you can close a conversation, leave it or report it too.

When a report shows our terms were broken, we may remove content, close conversations, block a sender or suspend an account. Where we believe someone is in serious danger, we may contact the relevant authorities.

On Plus, you can also set blocked words, to filter out messages you don't want to see. Messages, replies, blocking and reporting are free on every plan.

Like everything we build, DropAsecret is ours to run, so we built it the way we'd want to use it. You can make your link at dropasecret.com. To see what else we're working on, have a look at our other apps.