It started with Facebook... Then WhatsApp... Then Tinder... And now it’s Sarahah that’s grabbing headlines all over the world.
Sarahah, which in Arabic means ‘Honesty’, is an online anonymous messaging app on iOS and Android, developed in Saudi Arabia by 29-year-old Zain Alabdin Tawfiq. It’s an application that lets users leave messages on other users’ profiles without one’s identity being revealed.
The application lets you share a link of your Sarahah account to social media after which you have to wait for comments/trolls/compliments and who knows what else. One can only send text messages, not images or videos.
The big bummer is that you cannot reply to these messages nor can you see who the message is from. The only way to know who has sent the message is if the sender writes it themselves.
The app has gone viral after Snapchat allowed users to share the Sarahah app link in its posts. So much so, it was the top application on Apple Store in the month of July and it has more than 5 million downloads on Android Playstore.
The actual reason to start this application was to get reviews about a business that was started, but in wrong hands it can go from something positive to something negative, like cyberbullying (especially amongst children). Although, no such cases have come to light yet but apps like Sarahah are the perfect instruments for such activities.
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The internet is a harsh world and many kids are exposed to it, which is why elders need to be mindful about their children having access to this app. The application also has features like blocking, filtering and many other techniques (for the ones at the receiving end of trolls and abusive content).
That being said, there is still a lot of interest in this app and people are wanting to try it out. You can download the application from Playstore.
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