NGL: Is This Latest Internet Craze Really Anonymous, Or Just Another Means For Cyberbullying?

By Quinny Tan  •  24 Jun 2022 in Pop Culture

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We’ve lived through the days of Ask.fm and Curious Cat. And while everyone’s experiences were different, I’m sure a good chunk of us just got cyber-bullied via the protective walls of anonymity.

Introducing your next Internet fad, NGL took over all our Instagram stories this week. NGL claims that users’ identities are kept private so that they can ask questions without revealing their real names.

Here’s everything you need to know about it:

 

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Like most social media apps, Instagram doesn’t offer any built-in anonymous features. There is an option to ask a question and create a quiz or poll in Stories, but users are always able to see the accounts that responded, even if those people don’t follow them.

This could prevent a user from getting honest answers, since people are not always comfortable sharing their real opinion. That’s where anonymous apps come in.

NGL stands for ‘not gonna lie’ and allows you to remain anonymous whilst expressing your opinions without judgment. NGL is mainly aimed at teens as a safe space for them to share their thoughts.

The application was created by a small team of designers in Venice Beach, California and launched on November 7th, 2021.

The application can be accessed worldwide with a new update in the works of 50 languages being made available. As it stands, the application has over 7,000 reviews rating the free application 4.9/5 stars.

Once a user receives an anonymous message, they can open the NGL app and tap on the Inbox tab at the top to view messages. There’s an option to reply to the message, which shares the message as an Instagram story and lets the user post a public reply.

There’s also a ‘Who sent this’ button displayed under each new message. Clicking on it says that Pro members will be able to view hints about who sent a message. Expectedly, this feature is paid, and there’s a choice of three subscription tiers priced at $1.99, $4.99, or $9.99.

However, the Pro subscription doesn’t actually reveal the person who sent the message. Instead, it provides arbitrary hints such as the person’s location and phone model. In which case, isn’t that an invasion of privacy? But anyways…

So to answer that question, yes, the NGL app is anonymous. The entire premise is built around anonymous messages, so revealing the sender doesn’t really work in its favour.

NGL says it’s working on bringing “more specific hints” to pro subscribers, but it’s unlikely to ever reveal the true identity of people who send anonymous messages. At the moment, the Pro subscription feels like a bit of a scam by the app developers.

In the app reviews, some users have even alleged that the ‘hints’ aren’t very accurate either. Either way, Instagram users can send messages on NGL links without worrying about their identity being revealed.

But remember! Cyber-bullying is never okay.