The developer of the new Gas and tbh app is turning iMessage into Snapchat

Apple tends to figure out ways to kill popular apps, but this time, someone else has done the work for them. Nikita Beer, app maker at Midas Touch, announced his new product on Wednesday — an app called Explode Which transfers disappearing messages and texts directly to iMessage. Someone checks Snapchat and sees how they feel.

Explode is pretty simple: it gives anyone with the app the ability to send texts and images that have a limited viewing window. Once they’re gone, they’re gone forever. It also does not require both parties to install the app in order to use it, only the sender needs to install the app, and gets to choose how long the text or image will remain available.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am happy to announce my latest app:

Introducing explode
· Send disappearing texts and photos within iMessage
· Only the sender needs the app: drop it directly into your chats
· Screenshots are also blocked

Why did we build it? Explode is a spite app. Yes,… pic.twitter.com/mGwmoN28T8

– Nikita Bear (@nikitabear) January 14, 2025

Although the app is free to download, there are paid and premium features. For $39.99 per year or $7.99 per month, users can subscribe to Explode+ to receive screenshot alerts, block screenshots from being taken, review messages they’ve previously sent, and lock the view of photos after they’ve been sent to keep them available.

If it sounds a lot like Snapchat and its premium option, Snapchat+, that’s very intentional. Bear described Explode as a “spite app,” in response to a bad experience he had with Snapchat.

“Two years ago, I met with the CEO of Snapchat to discuss the acquisition of my former company. I openly shared how quickly we were growing. And just one week later — over the Thanksgiving holiday — Snapchat launched our SnapKit app, bringing our growth to a screeching halt. books On Twitter. “As Genghis Khan once said: The greatest pleasure is to defeat your enemies, rob them of their wealth and see them drown in tears.”

Pierre has significant experience dealing with major players in the technology space. He subsequently sold his first major success, an anonymous survey app called tbh, to Facebook Collect more than two million users daily. His second major foray into the app game, an anonymous praise app called Gas, was It was sold to Discord Having surpassed seven million downloads, and based on the timeline Bier provided about his Snapchat beef, it’s likely the app he’s been talking about with the company.

Will Explode be able to make an impact on Snapchat’s user base? There is good reason to doubt. The ephemeral nature of disappearing texts and photos is definitely a selling point for Snapchat, and gamifying those connections keeps people (mostly teens) coming back. Snapchat Streaks – A record of the number of days two people have sent messages back and forth Real social capital in adolescentsAs with Snapchat Awards, friendship labels are assigned based on the number of times users interact with each other.

Snapchat’s secret sauce isn’t disappearing messages, which have been successfully replicated by almost every app at this point, including Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and Telegram. It’s addictive social gaming, it definitely is Not good for overall well-being People are obsessed with friendship metrics, but they might be good for Snapchat’s longevity.