You might have already heard about Sarahah, a new anonymous messaging app blowing up right now. Nowadays, Sarahah catapulted to the number one position in the App Store, beating the likes of Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, and other major social networks.

What is Sarahah?

Sarahah is an Arabic word, which means ‘frankness’ or ‘candor’. The app was developed by a Saudi Arabian programmer as a means for employees to share feedback about their workplaces without fear of retribution.

However, original intent didn’t last long. The app is now the most popular download, and can be connected to social media accounts, including SnapChat, Facebook.

The program was created in 2016 as a website for anonymous comments, but an English version was rolled out in June and that’s when things took off.

How it works?

Sarahah works by giving each of its users a custom URL. That URL then directs whoever clicks on it to that user’s page. And on the page of that user (who, let’s say, is you) anyone with the URL can leave messages exclusively about a topic of interest to most people, says a Mashable report.

Is it a tool of cyberbullying?

Recently, the app has been accused of enabling cyberbullying as it allows users to send messages completely anonymously.

As Sarahah remains the most downloaded app in some of the countries of the world, many techno-experts believe its overnight rise is unsustainable.

What about users’ privacy?

The Sarahah messages can be flagged and reported, and future messages from that user can be blocked, though the recipient doesn’t know who they are. Once blocked, the messenger can’t be unblocked.

Messages can be sent to other users that have been blocked, but when trying to send a message to someone who blocked you the error message ‘something wrong happened’ appears.