Now, I know what you’re thinking. Cyber Dust… an app used to send pictures and messages that disappear after a few seconds. To the average consumer, this sounds an awful lot like Snapchat. While Cyber Dust is a much safer and efficient way to communicate with your friends in terms of security, there are parallels between the two apps.

Both Snapchat and Cyber Dust are free to download in the app store. The biggest appeal about both apps is that the pictures and messages you send disappear after a few seconds. Snapchat was the app that popularized the idea of sending pictures and messages that would not see the light of day ever again in the first place.

Both apps are framed around the 24-hour clock. This incentivizes users to actively engage with the application on a regular basis. Cyber Dust requires opening message within 24 hours after it’s sent before it disappears forever. Snapchat allows for unopened messages to remain in the receiver’s inbox for 30 days before it disappears. However, to ensure regular activity, Snapchat has a “streak” feature, which is an emoji that shows up next to your friend’s name if you engage at least once every 24 hours. The idea is that the longer you maintain your streak, the emojis change to mark your advancement.

The BIGGEST issue that people have with both apps is that they still haven’t resolved the screenshot issue. Sure, both apps let you know that a screen shot has been taken. However, as Marc Cuban stated, the screenshot feature is within the device itself. It has nothing to do with the application. Cyber Dust makes it so that the name of the person you are contacting does not show up on the same screen as the messages to help maintain anonymity in the case a screenshot is taken. However, they are still working on a way to combat this issue.