Image search, Questions and Safety

When we first designed Secret, we set a few key principles. Today, we’re releasing an update focused on one of them: Words are the centerpiece.

Over ten billion words have been shared and read by millions of people in our community. Along the way, we’ve learned several invaluable lessons about the great use cases of our platform as well as the realities of unwanted behavior that can hurt our community.

So, we’ve gone back to our base principles to help guide us forward. With that, we’re excited to announce a few meaningful improvements:

Image search, powered by Flickr

Images were always intended to be the backdrop and set the mood for your words. As of today, you’ll have access to billions of high quality photos from Flickr to use as the backdrop of your Secret. In exchange, you’ll no longer be able to use images from your photo library – but you can still take photos in real-time.

Search billions of Flickr images to use as a background.

Poll your friends

We’ve noticed people often using Secret to ask questions. In this new release, you’ll be able to turn any secret into a “Yes or No” question and see how your friends answer. As it spreads, you’ll also see how the world answers. This can be a powerful tool to get honest answers, quickly, from the people in your network and beyond.

Swipe right to answer and see results.

More protection

Safety has always been our priority and responsibility. Every product update we make includes safety features, and this one is our biggest.

1. Prevention. We’ve always analyzed posts up-front to detect names. Now, our system is more sophisticated and also detects keywords, sentiment, and photos of people. If we detect a potential violation of guidelines, we offer the author an opportunity to “re-think” their decision before they post. If the author proceeds with posting, our systems and teams will review it against our guidelines.
2. Real names. We’ve learned that the vast majority of great secrets don’t have names in them, and the few that do usually aren’t productive and can even be harmful. We’ve changed our position on the use of real names and, in addition to discouraging their use, we’re actively blocking posts containing names of private individuals whenever possible. We will invest heavily here to make sure the system improves over time.

This study shows that giving someone an opportunity to re-think before posting something negative dramatically reduces bad behavior.

These updates will be available on Android today and iOS next week. We believe these improvements will move us along in our journey to help the world safely express what we’re really thinking and feeling.