If you’re like many smartphone users, you’ve pressed “send” on a text and milliseconds later (or the next morning) wanted to get it back. Unfortunately, there was no way to unsend your text. Now there is.
A new iOIS app called Strings, from Seattle-based startup Be Labs, was developed to give users more control over their personal conversations. Strings is described on the app’s website as “a refreshing new way to share what you want with [whom] you want (and take it back, if you want).”
While other apps let you delete a text after you’ve sent it, Strings is unique in that it allows users to rescind messages after they’ve been opened by the recipient.
It also gives the message sender control as to whether the recipients of the message are able to save or download its content. Before a picture or a video you’ve sent can be downloaded by a friend, they will have to ask your permission to use it.
“It seems like a dream come true — and if you ask us, it kind of is,” The Huffington Post said about the new messaging app. Unfortunately, there is a string attached to Strings’ use. Both the sender and recipient need to be using the app in order for its usefulness to work.
Oh, and about that text you’re so desperate to delete? “Strings can’t stop the person on the receiving end from getting the text in the first place,” HuffPo reports.
Strings is the latest app to allow users to attempt to control their smartphone slip-ups. HuffPo said:
Invisible Text lets senders see whether or not the recipient has opened their text yet, and if they haven’t, the sender can delete it. Ansa is the “Snapchat of texting,” meaning your texts self-destruct after a certain amount of time. And the app On Second Thought allows users to recall their texts 60 seconds after sending them and has a “curfew” feature, meaning texts can be “embargoed” until the next morning in case you’ve had one too many.
Strings is only available in the iOS App Store.
Smartphones weren’t around when I was in college, and, for that, I’m thankful. I’ve heard too many stories about pictures and texts being sent by people who’ve perhaps had too much to drink. Then those messages are out there for eternity, or until someone else decides to delete them. Strings seems to put some of that power back in the user’s hands.
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