Sarahah: What the fuss is all about 

If you are on Twitter you’ve probably come across the hashtag #Sarahah showing up among the top trends. So what is it all about?

Its main site’s ‘About Us’ page depicts a minimalistic approach stating ‘Sarahah helps you in discovering your strengths and areas for improvement by receiving honest feedback from your employees and your friends in a private manner’

Put simply, Sarahah is a form messaging service with an emphasis on sender-receiver anonymity. 

How it works

Upon setting up an account on the main website or Sarahah App available for both iPhone and Android operating systems, users are given a URL link which they are encouraged to share with their friends or post it publicly on other social platforms for people to reach out to them and send messages.

However, the only medium here is text as audio, photos and videos aren’t supported.   

Unlike conventional social networking sites, Sarahah maintains complete anonymity of whoever sent you the message.

This trait of the network has seen people term it the ‘Honesty App’ as communicators will often tend to be honest in anonymity but lie to your face or withhold their feedback altogether.

You also can’t reply to messages but provider says they are studying this option.   

Origins

The service which till recently was only available as a website platform was created by a Saudi Arabian Developer with the intent of allowing employees to send anonymous feedback to their employers.

The app’s popularity has since grown and currently, it is ranked as the top trending App on iPhone OS, 10 million downloads on Google Play store and over 33,000 reviews on the same platforms.

With the surging increase in users, Sarahah has definitely gone beyond its original purpose of employee-employer feedback with bloggers, celebrities and ordinary users altogether using it to get general ‘honest’ feedback.

It remains to be seen if Kenyans will fall in love with Sarahah's quest for honesty.