Not everyone immediately thinks of Apple’s Notes app when they wish to keep a conversation private. However, you may completely wipe any record of your chat by using its collaboration tools to include other people in a “conversation” and then erasing the messages after you’re done. The Notes app is a quick and convenient choice for secret texting in a pinch. Sure, it’s not quite as secure as using an encrypted messaging app with vanishing messages (and it’s pretty easy to steal pictures of your shared notes or copy your chats to another app).
How to set up Notes as a private messaging app
Open Notes and start a new note to get going. After entering some text in the note, select Share note by tapping the three dots in the top-right corner of the page. Currently, you can select Share options and disable Anyone can add individuals. Make sure Can make modifications is selected under Permission.
Choose how you want to share the note with someone else by going back one page. They can access your note as long as they have an Apple ID. To send the note, we choose iMessage. You can start typing a message once the other person joins, and they will be able to see it very immediately.
By selecting Manage Shared Note from the three dots menu in the top-right corner of the screen, you can easily distinguish between your messages and those from your contacts. After choosing Highlight All Changes, return to your note. Notes will highlight your message in a different colour when they respond to it.
Delete whatever you’ve written before finishing the chat. Next, select Share Options by tapping the three horizontal dots in the top-right corner of the screen, and set the document permission to View only.
Go back to the previous screen, swipe left on your contact’s name, and choose Remove. They won’t be able to access the note any longer as a result. All traces of your interaction will be erased when you delete the note from Apple Notes.
Added privacy features for chat
Although you can collaborate with others using Apple Notes or Google Docs, these aren’t the tools you should use for true privacy. For these talks, you should ideally use encrypted messaging services like Signal.
Every conversation in Signal is encrypted by default, and the software doesn’t save any data that isn’t necessary. Tap the contact’s name at the top of the page after starting a chat in Signal, then choose Disappearing Messages. Each message in the chat will automatically end after the time you specify for these communications.
You don’t have to manually purge information or send secret messages through a platform that isn’t encrypted. Signal has a useful feature to automatically blur all faces when you upload photographs. It is much more suited for private talks because to features like this. You also have a list of Signal’s alternatives if you prefer not to utilise them.