Back when we were kids (or even now, to be honest), to be entrusted with a secret felt like winning a prize or finishing a particularly brutal Candy Crush level. It made you feel important and trusted, or relieved and scared at the same time— relieved to have shared something precious (or embarrassing), and scared that the secret might be revealed.

 

As people spend more time on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, it was inevitable for secret-sharing to become a social networking activity as well.

 

At first glance, the Secret app (free on iOS and Android) looks like Instagram filled with quotes set against a photo. But before you say “yuck,” read through the secrets and you’ll be hooked. This is Postsecret for the smartphone generation.

 

All secrets shared are completely anonymous. Signing up using Facebook will give you access to your friends’ secrets (if they are using the app, too) and vice versa, but you will never know which friend is sharing which secret. If that premise would drive you crazy, don’t install the app.

 

According to the app’s FAQ section, “When friends love your secret, it will be shared with their friends who are also on Secret.”

 

Friends who comment on Secret remain anonymous, and you can’t even see which friends are on Secret. “Secret does not disclose which of your friends are already on Secret. We may show you the total number of friends you have on Secret, but never specific people,” says the FAQ section.

 

Some people use Secret as a passive-aggressive way to express hate, anger or loneliness. Other secrets are funny (I apparently have a 47-year-old Facebook friend who is crushing hard on Enrique Gil), others are so juicy (a dude is cheating on his girlfriend with his male best friend), while some are just plain sad. You can also see how “torpe” we are as a society, as a lot of Secrets tend to be about crushes, unrequited love and letting “the one” get away.

 

Secret seems to have hit upon the magic formula to success because the company recently raised $25 million in capital, though it still has to figure out a way for the app to generate revenue (we can’t see a way for Secret to turn into an ad hoc marketplace like Instagram).

 

If you have a lot of time on your hands, or a lot of secrets that you need to get off your chest anonymously, install the app and start the confessional now.