Do you remember the feeling when you used Facebook for the first time? Well, in many ways it was like a breeze of fresh air, wasn’t it? However, as time passed, obviously people craved for something new and different. As they say, change is the only constant. Today social media networks have taken several different forms in order to meet the many different demands of people. One such form is anonymous social networking. It was in the year 2014 that we noticed a surge in anonymous social networking apps like there was Whisper, Secret, Facebook Rooms, & YikYak, to meet the changing demands of people.

No wonder, these apps turned out to be a huge hit among the masses, as people loved the intense level of privacy in the digital age. The next question that pops here is what were these social networks aiming at this step? The idea was simply to introduce a safe & authentic communication platform to people that worked for both private & public social spheres.

In the case of Anonymous social apps, they don’t need people to make user profiles and need just a little information about users. These apps allow their users to express their views and feelings freely, without any vulnerability. A free Android & iOS app, Whisper enables its users to send anonymous messages and receive replies. The messages that the users have posted are displayed as text that’s superimposed over an image, which appears like a greeting card.

If you are looking forward to developing an application like Whisper, AskFm, or Reddit the social network app development cost is actually low. As these websites gain popularity, the market offers a great range of services for you here.

What Are the Types of Anonymous Social Networking?

There are two types of anonymous social networks. Also, these two kinds of anonymous social networking apps can be blended along or they can be used within the same mobile app.

  • Anonymous Chat-based Apps: These are one-on-one or group messaging platforms, enabling the users to communicate with the other users sans divulging their identity. Like, we have Sarahah & Popcorn Messaging, for instance.
  • Anonymous Social Media Platforms: These platforms allow people to share different types of content with the app users via news feed. Like, we have YikYak& Whisper, for instance.

With these applications leading the market, it becomes quite easier for people to connect with others without actually revealing their identity. The kind of privacy and confidentiality they offer is unique and makes it easier for others to connect with the application.

Why does one need to create Whisper-like mobile apps?

As per the Pew Research Center study conducted in the year 2013? eighty-six percent of the internet users took steps to avoid any surveillance & safeguard their anonymity. Irony has that just 37% of the people think that complete anonymity is possible.

These people made efforts to mask their actions/behavior and avoid being tracked by the advertisers or a certain set of people be it their employers, people from the past, hackers, or law enforcement, or even governments (mainly since Snowden made the big revelation that real-name networks, such as Facebook were tracked by the government). The social media app development cost is quite controlled and so the cost of advertising on these applications is also less. Thus, you can easily connect with our team and build a strong presence in the market without any worries.

This led to the evolution of anonymous social networking apps like Secret & Whisper, which gained instant prominence in a really short period, and also new entrants like Sneaky, Erodr, YikYak offer people a chance to post without revealing their identity. Anonymity has become important in this era of internet and online communication. After anonymity is the best means to combat cyberbullying. Apps such as Secret & Whisper allow people a chance to confess things, which may otherwise potentially destroy their personal lives, involving loss of friendship, marriage, jobs, sans any repercussions. This way, they get to bear out their souls any their trouble.

Often business owners make sure that the instant messenger app development solutions delivered to you are interesting and engaging. We affirm that you do not have to struggle with the time and space in the market and you can build your dominance as easily as possible

 

Read More: How much does it cost to develop a dating app

Are You Looking to Create An App Like Whisper Why It Is The Right Time To Do It

If you are someone who is planning on creating an app like Whisper, then this is just the right time to do so. Today, everyone is raving about anonymous social network app development, and starting in the arena can be a profitable deal for you. But before that let’s understand the kind of information that users want to protect:

  • Emails Contents
  • Contacts that users are sending emails to
  • Content or Files download
  • User location at the time s/he is online
  • Online chat & messenger content

Usually, to hide from their observers, people try clearing out browsing history or cookies or they use fake social media profiles. Many users even took the sophisticated route where they encrypted their emails or used VPNs (Virtual Personal Network), or even proxy servers designed especially to prevent the tracking of online behavior. However, people would like more control over privacy and this is why anonymous social media networks that encourage the same kind of human connection as offered by Facebook are a hit.

Read Also: How Much It Cost to Develop a Messaging App like Telegram?

How Would You Identify the Users If They’re Anonymous?

With Whisper-like Anonymous social networking apps, important personal information, like photos, email addresses, videos, birthdates, phone numbers, workplaces, addresses, & friend lists doesn’t exist in the user profiles. In fact, at the time there is no profile at all. Like, in the case of Whisper, it is not possible to check anyone’s profile page. What one can do is go through their profile to see everything that they have liked and posted. Also, people get push notifications on their phones whenever anyone likes or replies to their posts.

Does this mean that the app knows which device it should be sending a notification to, even though it didn’t ask you to log in?

This way, Anonymous social networking can also be categorized into types of login & non-login. Login: There are several anonymous social networking apps requiring users to log in. Like, in some apps, the users need to enter a password and they are assigned an @id no. These numbers begin at @alpha1 & then they go through @alpha999 before they move on to @beta1 and @beta9999. Then the other mobile apps ask the user to enter any random username & password or often their mobile number. Anonymous social networking app developers will use your phone number to show the posts done by your friends, and this certainly will make you willing to spend more time within the app.

Non-login: In a few of the anonymous social networking apps, users don’t require logging in, so it’s not possible to get their email or name. So to track the anonymous users, a unique user ID & token can be generated, which can then be associated with a user’s device solely. This way, when a user will access your app from another of his devices, your app will then generate another token & will be creating a whole new entity in the database.

With apps like whisper creating autonomy in the market, may become a challenge, but the profits promised are worth taking the risk and moving forward.

Now, the user ID & posts aligned with it are stored on the backend, and as someone likes or replies to it, a push notification can be sent from the app to the device which is linked to that particular USER ID. Besides, its location information can also be accessed to generate nearby feeds. A few years back, UDID (a unique device identifier) was used by the iPhone app development as a kind of anonymized token. But, later in 2013, Apple went on to stop the acceptance of the iPad & iPhone app that collect UDID. Now the reason for this act was mainly owing to the security concern.

What Are the Features of a Whisper-like Mobile App?

When you reach out to hire mobile app developers for a strong online presence, the cost of development does hurt your pocket a little. The cost to make social media app is much higher than building these anonymous applications.

The feature set is limited and the user doesn’t need a lot to explore. Here we have first begun with the basic features of Whisper-like app, where there are two kinds of users:

  • Front-end user (App Users)
  • Back-end User (App Admin)
Features of the App UserFeatures of the Admin Panel
Registration/LoginLogin
Share secretsDashboard
Know other users secretManage customers
Like/reportManage story category
ChatManage posts, videos
GroupsCreate stories
Story categoryManage ad owner
SearchManage ads
Custom videos 
Discover users 
Video recording 
Top stories 
Set location 
View ads 
Feedback 
Manage profile 
Manage privacy 
Notifications 

These are some of the basic features of Sarahah and Whisper like applications that make it easier for the users to connect with others without actually revealing their real identity.

Advanced Features

  • Anonymity: Anonymity is the main feature of this app as it enables the user to post their thoughts or secrets in an anonymous manner, where the system will be generating a nickname that is shown to the other users rather than the users? real identification.
  • Assigning of a nickname: To maintain the anonymity of the users, each user is given a nickname that is assigned by the system. This automated process will be taking place after the user registration.
  • CMS Integration: Content is an integral part of this platform where it helps the app users to read correct information about the system and learn about the system.
  • Privacy & Security: The system needs to assure user data privacy and security. Now each of the user data is saved by the system to view & check at any time. So, in case a user breaks any law or does anything unwarranted, then the admin can take an action against that user.
  • Chat-logs: The system consists of the whole of the user data and with chat log timestamp being one of them, this the system will be saving chat log time stamp for privacy and security purpose. The system will be able to examine any of the chat logs and in case any culprit of found, then that user will be removed from the system.
  • Real-time Reporting: This feature comprises real-time reporting concerning user registration, most-liked posts, user posts, most reported posts, total reports, and much more. Here each of the reports can be viewed by admin with a date range and a time filter.
  • Cloud Storage: Integrating cloud storage is useful in keeping user data private and secure. It enhances the app’s security measures. Amazon cloud storage works well for cloud storage.
  • Website, App, PWA: Here in this functionality, the system is implemented on the website, mobile apps & PWA, and this way it will be accessible on any of the devices.
  • Track Location: The system can track user location to track user activity, like where the user is currently existing and then they can suggest nearby people locate. Their location can be tracked via GPS API.
  • Voice: This is a user experience in video form, where the system will be allowing users to share their experience with the system. Here, users can make a video and then share that on the system. Users can also see the entire voice and may also search for a voice for specific issues like depression, sadness and thus can get experienced. Besides, if the user is using the PC, then they will be requiring the latest Flash Player.
  • Analytics & Tracking: Here the system will be analyzing and tracking data using some API users & technologies. The system will be tracking user measurement, ads tracking, conversion, ad visitors, etc. Also, the system can use Google Analytics 360 & comScore.
  • Managing login session: Users can manage the login session of each user, where they can see how many users are using the system actively. These were a few of the advanced features of the Whisper-like Anonymous social media mobile apps. Next, let’s move on to the main purpose of such apps, i.e. sharing content. Now, this is also the main problem of these apps.

These features define the working of the application to its best. They maintain the secrecy and the confidentiality of the users making it more convenient and happening for them to understand how things work.

Read Also: Cost to Create an Instant Messaging App like WhatsApp

What measures do anonymous social media apps must take to reduce cyberbullying

Cyberbullying is often said to be prevalent on social media platforms. But if we look at the picture closely then it’s not all about the social media apps. People often play comparatively nasty when they are behind some mask. Not behaving properly goes hand in hand with secret identities. Gossiping, selling of drugs, extortion, and engaging in filthy activities come along with online anonymity. A handful of teen suicides were also reported because of online anonymity. So how should you fight this kind of abuse on your anonymous social network There are a few ways to do so, like:

Flag posts: Allowing the users to flag posts that may seem inappropriate to them can help in reducing cyberbullying. If some user keeps on sending abusive content, the person can issue him an in-app warning, and even if that also doesn’t help then the person can block that user.

Remove abusive posts: To remove or inspect any abusive or harmful posts, the hiring of a team of individuals is required. Along with that development of an algorithm to detect plus remove abusive posts also needs to be done.

Limit the number of users: This way, all the content a person post is available to the public, however, only the users that are registered can post on that person’s profile. This method is used by the Cloak app to keep the rubbish at bay in the app feeds.

Geofencing: With the implementation of Geo fencing using GPS coordinates, one can prevent the app from working in some specific area. Yik Yak went on to apply geo-fencing around middle & high schools in the U.S. after the spike in cyberbullying. The application of measures to stop cyberbullying via anonymous apps is the need of the hour. But sanitizing the apps to protect people’s feelings resulted in Apps losing their popularity. After an app agreed to work along with the regulators to implement Cyberbullying protections.

It slipped from the top spot of the App Store. In other words with the drop in trash talk, there is a drop in the app’s popularity. But, irrespective of all the controversy around social media apps, they possess great potential to achieve big. Similarly, creating an anonymous social media app can turn out to be challenging but on the other hand, exciting too.

How can we develop an anonymous social network?

Well, there is a procedure to create such kinds of apps, however, there are a few essential things that must be kept in mind while one begins with the development process.

Keep your communication channel secure: Your app will have to store some data no matter how minimal it is. Like, an anonymous messenger would require a contact list, a user id, activity history, texts. This info can be kept away from unauthorized access by keeping it encrypted. And this can be done with two keys: private and public. This is often used in the case of bribery. The public key is used to decrypt texts and contacts inside a chat. While the private key is used by chat creators to post new texts. The chat names can turn out to be the public key. Thus, a person aware of the chat name can easily read it but only some out there can write to it.

Protection of private information: No app out there is secure. All the famous apps have tried to be super secure but failed in their attempt. Hackers get attracted by these super secure statements. Thus, selecting the data that you want to secure is important when you turn towards anonymity. Designing your site in such a way that it can contain the necessary data and refuse unnecessary data. Storing as little information as possible will protect your future users.

Content Moderation: An app Sahara Was launched in Saudi Arabia in 2016. That app was created to allow the users to send anonymous texts to other users. It mainly was launched to enable corporate employees to send anonymous feedback on the manager’s performance. The app straight rose to the top of the Apple App Store. It gained over the top popularity in more than 30 countries like the UK, USA & France, with over 1/4 billion visitors plus 1 billion page views. As recorded in 2017, it had over 62 million users.

But unfortunately, there was more than required user-generated content after a while or we can say offensive content. As a result, it becomes a go-to place for cyberbullies. User-generated Content can prove to be a nightmare to any of the social media platforms. But there are some social media apps like Whisper that have successfully fended off cyberbullies by doing comment moderation with the help of artificial intelligence tools and the human moderation team. Going by records, the app launched in Saudi Arabia has collected $6100000 and still growing in numbers.

Prominent Tools for Content Moderation:

Begin with the must-have tools, they are:

  • Basic explicit content moderation algorithm.
  • Report option with further human moderation.
  • Internal CMS (Content Moderation System).

The other tools that come useful are:

  • Outsource content moderation to a firm like Sykes.
  • Image/Video moderation via machine learning.
  • Geo-fencing to cut fake accounts from specific locations.
  • Volunteered content moderators (they work well for the starters).

Location Anonymizers: There are a lot of ways to determine a user’s location. The most accurate one out there is GPS. Other alternatives make use of the IP address. This method can be said to be less accurate in comparison to GPS but with login time and the device’s footprint, IP address can often be used by various authorities for de-anonymization. To confront this type of problem, one can make use of VPN networks, proxies, and software like Tor which protect network surveillance and traffic analysis. Tor keeps its users secure by the redirection of their communications via a distributed circuit of relays managed by volunteers across the globe. Device footprints and locations can also be turned into something useful.

Read Also: How to develop a multi-purpose messaging app like WeChat?

In place of tagging users via emails, some apps generate some unique token that is tagged with some user’s device. In this way, posts, messages, info will get connected with the physical devices. So in this way, no one other than the device owner can access their profile.

Choosing an app development partner to create an app like Whisper

Creating anonymous social media apps like Whisper is a tiring and expensive affair. However, the best part is that today there are several good anonymous social media app development companies out there, that help businesses in developing feature-rich and excellent anonymous social media apps. There are a few firms that offer great services at reasonable prices and hence you can get an amazing app delivered to you.

What is the cost to create a Whisper-like anonymous social networking app

The cost of developing a Whisper like mobile app depends on several factors, such as:

  • Features List;
  • App development team (iOS, Android developers, Project manager, UX/UI Designers, QA Experts)
  • Region of the App Development Company
  • Number of Platforms (Android or iOS, or both)

Once, these factors are sorted, it may take around $25000-$30000 to create a basic mobile app for anonymous social networks with the basic features, for one platform. Meanwhile, the case if you choose to create the app for both platforms and add more features, then the cost raises to $40000. However, going up in the price arena will certainly enhance the app quality to an all-new level.

And the Final Key Takeaways!

We make sure that the solutions that are worked on are interesting and engaging. The mobile app development company associated with us make sure that the solutions that are dropped to you are engaging and help you earn great results. If you are looking forward to hiring a team of experts that can reflect on the screen your business idea we are just a click away.

Our experts have experience in delivering solutions that are engaging and interesting and it has outperformed the market and client expectation.

If you want to see your idea turn to a working reality hire the right development team today!

THE AUTHOR
Sales Head
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Palak Khandelwal is a seasoned tech blogger with a passion for exploring the ever-evolving landscape of technology. With years of experience in the industry, Palak brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to her engaging and informative blog.

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