'Whisper' app lets you reveal your deepest desires and fears to anonymous users

It was during a salon visit this week that I heard of the app, Whisper. "So, I found out that a lady who lives a kilometre away from me is pregnant. Though her husband and family are very happy, she says she wakes up every day hoping for a miscarriage," said my hairstylist.

And how did he know? Whisper, the app, lets you reveal your deepest desires and fears to an anonymous void called the world.

This is how it goes - you download the app, and once you click on it, you can read confessions, desires, needs, and, sometimes random thoughts of strangers from all over the world. The app tells you exactly how far away the person is from you - it could be a 1 kilometre or 1,000. You can obviously share your feelings as well, without revealing anything about yourself. You can also send a message to anyone you want, if you think you have something they need.

When you do send your first message, the app gives you a slight nudge and reminds you to be kind, and "not gross".

I started by being vicarious and sneaky. I couldn't believe some of the things that people were putting out there, but then as my astute stylist had commented - "these are things you won't even tell your best friend, out of fear of being judged. But, you just need to let them out."

This is what I came across: "I am planning my roommate's wedding, but secretly, I hate her and I want it to fail" and "I married a trans-man. It's hard sometimes but I love him". There were others who talk about not wanting sex as they are pregnant and giving their husbands a hall pass when it comes to having sex with others, some who confess they like women not men, some who just want to sext, some who like short girls, some who are conscious about their fat… the confessions reflect many of our own anxieties.

Many users are on just to find someone to hook up with, and that negates the real aim of the app.

I didn't have a secret to share, but I tried to chat with a few who did, wondering what would come of it. The boy who liked short girls turned out to be short himself, and the lady who was married to a transgender, first got offended at my silly statement "that's nice of you", and replied with a curt "I'm not doing him a favour", and then softened when I suggested that the best marriages are those where friendship comes first. She said, "Exactly. He is my best friend and that's why we are married."

As of 2016, it was reported that Whisper had reached over 30 million monthly active users. The New York Times named it a social media platform of choice for millennials. To me, it seemed like another business model aimed at increasingly lonely people, designed to make them lonelier, urging them to talk to their phones instead of real people. But its success clearly shows that we are aching to talk, but scared of being judged. We recommend that you get off your phone, talk to people around you, and use this only when you want to vent.