A few months ago Snapchat swept the nation, with as many as tens of thousands downloads per day at one point. Funny and sometimes inappropriate pictures flooded users' inboxes, with the appeal being that the photos and videos self-destructed. But some users quickly realized that screenshots of these images could be taken. Enter iDelete, a new free iOS app from iDelete Technology that eliminates the ability to take a screenshot of your "Mission Impossible"-style self-destructing message.
iDelete's patent pending Screen Shot Protection is what really sets it apart from its competitors Snapchat and Facebook Poke. The feature disables replication of the text or image message, and it can be turned on and off depending on whether you want to keep your messages on the down-low. Plus, a self-destruct timer ensures that your texts and messages are automatically deleted after a specific amount of time.
If your recipient hasn't yet opened your message, you can delete the text or image from your outbox. Plus, a handy Confirm Send feature makes sure you double-check your messages and recipients before you send it to their inbox.
During our hands-on time with the app, we found the interface very simple and easy to use. There are tabs at the bottom for Inbox, Outbox and Settings. When we tapped the Compose button to draft our first message, we granted iDelete access to all of our contacts. You can adjust the Self-Destruct Timer to set for 10, 20 30 or 60 seconds or 2 minutes. The image or text sent is blurred until the recipient taps and holds it, so users can't capture a screen shot.
There is one feature that Snapchat offers and iDelete does not, however. We tried to send a message to multiple recipients at the same time on iDelete, and were unsuccessful. We can see iDelete becoming as popular if not more so than Snapchat because of its intense privacy features, so we're eager to see how the iOS app progresses.
