A group of UAE-based entrepreneurs is joining the fight for ever more privacy in messaging apps, with the launch of Oh!Message. The app allows users to send voice and written messages that disappear as soon as they are sent, read, and played.

“The application brings users back to the classical period of simple communications tools; by using the best privacy-enhancing features, [it is] the first chat application with this high privacy developed in the ME region by Arab expertise,” entrepreneurs Mohammed Othman and Haian Nayouf said.

With this free app, the sent message will disappear from the sender’s account after ten seconds, whether it is read by the recipient or not, and it will also disappear from the recipient’s account ten seconds after it's opened or played. The message will be destroyed completely within the application and will not be stored on the app servers.

Written messages are limited to 100 characters while audio messages are ten seconds.

"Oh!Message is end-to-end encrypted but it also has other features that make it the most private app among messaging apps," said engineer Mohammed Othman, Co-Founder and Chief of Technology at Oh!Message. “In this app, which is available on Apple and Android stores, the user doesn’t appear online while using it and his/her location is not tracked,” he explained.

"The first period of the app launch is in the UAE, the Gulf region, and Arab countries," said Haian Nayouf, Co-Founder and Chief of Communications at Oh!Message. “The UAE is the capital for talent, companies, and investments in the areas of digital and technical excellence globally. This has greatly motivated us to work on this project in UAE, and the app is the first of its kind in the Arab world with these strong privacy features,” he added.