There are an endless number of Snapchat imitators designed to help users send self-destructing emails, but none do it as seamlessly as SnapMail.
This Chrome extension puts a button right next to your Gmail “send” button so that you can easily flip your regular messages into secret communiqués. It was created as a weekend project by Istanbul-based designer Ahmet Sulek and members of his collaborative think-tank Panda Network. Sulek told the Daily Dot that the product was originally built to share passwords safely and easily through email.
According to a Medium post published by Sulek on Wednesday, SnapMail works by encrypting messages using an AES algorithm and then storing those messages on SnapMail’s servers. When the recipient clicks the link, they have 60 seconds to view it before it disappears forever.
The SnapMail site went live on Wednesday morning and soon rocketed to the top of Product Hunt. According to Sulek, the site has had 4,500 visits in six hours, and SnapMail has already processed around 800 messages.
Sulek said that the Chrome extension is only the first step in what he conceives as a broader role for SnapMail in secure messaging.
“We already started working on a native mobile and Mac application,” Sulek said. “We believe that this can be the Snapchat for professionals and grownups.”
Many companies have tried to build a “Snapchat for grownups,” but none have truly succeeded yet. Sulek, who is 28, said he’s a fan of Snapchat but finds that no one his age uses it. He also said he would be wary of sending his passwords through the app’s messaging feature.
So would Sulek take a $3 billion buyout offer?
“I would better choose a seed investment instead,” Sulek said. “It would accelerate the process that we’re going through and would make more than $3 billion. It’s still early days, I’m passionate about building products and solving user problems. But a $3 billion offer for two months work, sounds reasonable to me.”
Spoken like a true, grown-up Evan Spiegel.
Photo via Intel Free Press/Flickr (CC BY SA 2.0)