In the social media fad, one come when one goes. There are many players, but only a few of then are able to withstand the harsh competition.
Sarahah is one that came up unexpectedly. In a quick pace, it places itself alongside giants like Twitter and Snapchat. In its first few months of existence, Sarahah became the number one free app on Apple's App Store, beating YouTube Instagram and even Facebook.
In just a small amount of time, Sarahah has garnered millions of users and has been downloaded millions of times on both iOS and Android.
So what is exactly "Sarahah"?
The word means “honesty” or “candor.” It started its life as a tool for giving workplace employers feedback from their employess in an anonymous setting. However, Sarahah is more popular among teenagers.
Why? Because the concept is simple, straightforward without gimmicks.
According to the app: "Sarahah helps you in discovering your strengths and areas for improvement by receiving honest feedback from your employees and your friends in a private manner."
So here, users of the app can post their honest opinions to other profile pages without giving away their identity. The goal is to give a platform for people to help others recognize their strengths and weaknesses without the awkwardness of telling it to their face.
Using Sarahah is simple. First, users need to download and set up the app's privacy settings. Then they need to create an account, in which they can do from either the app of a web page.
Once logged in, users will be taken to the settings menu where they can adjust notification preferences, language, and privacy options. Because Sarahah is an anonymous messaging app, users are recommended to check the privacy tab and make sure than everything is set as wanted.
For privacy concerned users, for example, they may want to turn off "Appear in search" and "Allow Unauthorized Users to Post" option.
After finishing all of the above, users will be seeing a blank profile page, with a web address in the middle. This is the link that others can use to send the user messages.
Tap or click on the link, and share it with others with whatever method they prefer. Be it on social media, email, SMS or other messaging apps.
When users receive messages, they can see them by going on the speech bubble icon on the bottom part of the app at the "received" tab. There, they can press the heart icon to add it to their favorite, or share it by selecting the arrow icon. Users can also block a person who sent inappropriate message, and report the message by using the flag icon.
For messaging someone, this is where Sarahah differs from most other. People can either use the Search function inside the app and type someone's name and then send them a direct message, or just send a message using any devices, without using Sarahah account.
As long as they know the unique URL of the Sarahah user, anyone without the app or an account can send him/her a message from any internet-connected device.
Simple in nature with a great aim. But Sarahah has failed at some points in its early life.
First of all, the internet is a cruel place to be. Even when people use their real names, cyberbullying is already a norm on the web. With anonymity and easiness of use, criticisms said that Sarahah is like fueling online bullying to the next level.
This can be seen from reviews on app stores that show polarizing opinions.
For example, the number of five-star reviews is almost as many as its one-star reviews. Many of the negatives commented disturbing instances of online abuse and cyberbullying. A user said that the site "is a breeding ground for hate."
Others however, are less concerned about those thing, and found values in the concept of anonymous messaging.
"This app is so fun! I've gotten the most honest–and craziest–opinions about me and I've gotta say, people have had a lot of nice and humorous things to say," said one of the positive reviewers.
Anonymous messaging isn't at all a new idea. On mobile, there are plenty of others - such as Whisper, Secret, Yik Yak and so forth. However, none of them have taken off as fast and as controversial as Sarahah.
