Startups Making Your Tweets Self-Destruct

Perhaps they took the idea from Snapchat, the hot photo-sharing application that sends photos that disappear after only a few seconds' viewing, but two startups are now giving Twitter users a way to put an expiration date on tweets.

By using a hashtag and a number, such as #1m for 1 minute, #3h for 3 hours or #7d for 7 days, a tweet will disappear into the ether in that time frame if a user has downloaded Spirit, a new app created by a former Twitter engineer, according to The Verge. Spirit follows Efemr, another app named after its ephemeral nature, but functions pretty much the same.

While this could be good for people wanting to post short-term photos, messages or codes, it also can be good for storm warnings, news bulletins or Amber Alerts.

However, we don't know how long Twitter will allow the apps to exist and access its API. Twitter users may want to use the apps soon because Spirit and Efemr may turn out to be transitory, too.

 
 
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