Text messaging’s a big deal. There are more than 500 million users worldwide, and that number is growing every day. The company behind one of the world’s most popular texting apps, Tango, has decided to take on the task of creating an industry-first private texting app for its users. On August 7, 2017, Tango announced its plans to launch a brand new platform called Privacy Notes, offering free text messages between two people in return for providing their personal data to advertisers. It sounds like a great idea at first glance, but will it really solve anything?
It all started when Tango was launched back in 2008. At the time, the company was known as Jangg (Jangg is Korean slang for “to chat”). With Tango, the founders had created a unique way for you to send instant messages without having to use your actual phone number. Rather than simply sending texts to other users with your regular phone or mobile device, Tango uses a combination of WiFi and GPS to find you wherever you are online. Once it does, it sends you a text message with a link inviting you to join the service. If you click on the link, you can open up what’s essentially a web browser window where you can log into the site using your login information from your existing website or social media account. From there, you can start chatting with whoever you want — no need for them to have a Tango account.
And this worked so well! In just a few years, Tango grew to become the #1 free messaging app by volume of monthly active users around the globe, according to Apptopia. While Tango wasn’t the only player on the field, it definitely set itself apart from others thanks to its innovative feature. And while Tango had a lot of success, it didn’t last forever. As reported by TechCrunch, Tango was purchased by Facebook for $19 billion in 2014. And while there were rumors about whether or not Facebook would keep Tango separate from its main Facebook product, they never materialized. And after spending a decade building the service, Tango was shut down in December 2016, which left many wondering about the future of the now-defunct app.
Fast forward to today, and Tango is no longer even available on Google Play Store. So if you want to use the service, you’ll need to download the app directly from the developer’s website. But will it be there long-term? Will anyone ever use it?
Well, according to the company behind the app, there’s still a place for Tango in the market, and it’s not going anywhere any time soon. This week, Tango announced that it’s bringing back its original name, and launching a brand new private texting platform called Privacy Notes — which is completely different than the old app. According to the company, the goal of Privacy Notes is to offer a secure and reliable way for two friends to communicate privately over text, without having to give up their personal information to advertisers or sharing their location with strangers.
Here’s how it works. You can go to the Privacy Notes website, type in a nickname or email address for yourself, then enter your own password to sign in. Once you’re signed in, you can choose who you want to share your privacy note with — anyone else who has access to your email address. Then, you simply type out whatever you want to say in the body of the message — in real time — and hit send. A short while later, you’ll receive a reply from your recipient (if they’ve chosen to respond) with their response embedded within the body of the message. To read the full privacy note, you can click on the little envelope icon next to each message you receive, and select either “Copy Message” or “Open Message” to view it in a pop-up.
To make things even better, you don’t have to worry about your privacy being compromised because of third-party sites. The entire process takes place inside the Tango messaging app, so any data is encrypted before it leaves your device. No one can see or listen to your conversations, and you can delete your messages whenever you want.
As an added bonus, Privacy Notes offers some pretty cool features. For example, you can include photos, gifs, music, and videos in your messages, which can add a much needed element of fun to your chats. And as noted above, the company says that you don’t have to give up any of your personal information to use the service, since everything happens inside of Tango’s messaging system.
In the traditional time people used to create the message with their hands. But as the technology got advanced now the creation of the Privnote is also possible digitally. This has made the life of the people simpler. Now they can easily create the message on time with better clearance and quality.
So why should we care? Well, for starters, Tango offered a unique approach to messaging that no one else could replicate. While there were plenty of other services that offered similar functionality to Tango, none of them had the same level of engagement. Users loved the fact that they could talk to random people around the world, regardless of what phone or device they used. And because Tango was based on GPS technology, it actually made the process of connecting with somebody feel less creepy than other forms of communication. Plus, the company built a loyal following that was willing to pay to use the service, which also helped drive revenue for the company.
But is it enough to bring back Tango once again? We’ll have to wait until September 11th to find out. Privacy Notes officially launches on that date, and the company hopes to attract tens of thousands of users to the service in the coming months. But will they stick around? Only time will tell.