Confide, a new “off the record” messaging app for Android, allows you to send self-destructing messages to your friends. After they’ve been read, your messages automatically disappear forever, ensuring that your private conversations remain just that.

Confide is a lot like Snapchat — only rather than targeting teens who like to send embarrassing pictures of themselves to friends, it’s ideal for just about anyone.

Whether you’re communicating with a loved one about a surprise birthday bash or discussing confidential business matters with a colleague, Confide ensures that once your messages have been read by the recipient, they’re gone forever.

Not only do they automatically delete, but in order to read messages in Confide, you have to swipe over each word one by one to reveal it. It then vanishes again after a second or two. It sounds clumsy — particularly when using your phone one-handed — but there’s a good reason for this.

By forcing you to reveal each individual word — and then hiding those words again after they’ve been read — Confide takes away the ability to screenshot messages and save them. This, combined with end-to-end encryption, makes Confide reliable and secure.

Confide also offers read receipts, so you can see exactly when your messages have been read.

Confide has been available on iOS since January, and it has received heaps of praise from users and the media. It’s completely free, and it’s already being used in 100 countries worldwide. Download the app now from Google Play by following the link below.

• Google Play StoreConfide