One of the unfortunate side effects (depending on who you ask, anyway) of excessive alcohol consumption is the free flow of emotions. And in today's mobile-focused society, it's often next to impossible to recant what's been said or shared during a late-night drunken texting session.
Messaging apps like Snapchat allow senders to mitigate damage via disappearing media but the truth of the matter is that not everything needs to be erased. In instances where only select texts, photos or videos need to vanish, an app like Strings might be just what the doctor ordered.
Strings works just like any other messaging app except it allows users to take back messages and media at a later date. It works with texts, e-mails, photos and videos of unlimited length, an added plus. The sender can also control whether or not the recipient can save and download content.
Once a delete request has been put in, the offending material is immediately deleted from the recipients' phone as well as Strings' servers, permanently. For this to work, of course, everyone that's a part of the conversation will need to be using the app.
While a worthwhile solution in the event that the recipient hasn't yet seen your message(s), it'll do little to ease the mind of someone that has already seen the offending material. Screenshots can be taken (although the sender will be notified) and there's nothing to stop someone from copying an offending text into another app or simply taking a picture of their screen with a camera, etc.
The Strings app is available free of charge from the App Store with an update slated for mid-January. No word yet on when a version of the app will be coming to Android handsets, however.