Ghost's new anonymous group messaging app has ChatGPT baked in

Anonymous social apps have a history of devolving into bullying and harassment, ultimately leading to their failure. But a new startup called Ghost believes that putting in extra guardrails around the anonymous experience will allow users to have fun, without the usual downsides. To test this theory, the company has now launched its Ghost messaging app that allows users to share an anonymous message in a group chat with friends in order to flirt, joke or ask questions without revealing their identity. The app also includes a range of other features, including the ability to ask ChatGPT a question directly within the group chat, among other things.

The idea, explains Ghost's founder Cem Kozinoglu, was to make something that was fun to use but that still respected a user's desire for privacy. To accomplish this, the app uses something it's calling "Ghost Protocol," which is a system that utilizes zero-knowledge proofs on the end user's device.

This way, the app knows who has access to a given group chat, but Ghost -- the company itself -- does not.

Thanks to his entrepreneurship background, Kozinoglu understands the motivations of social app users. Prior to Ghost, the founder worked as the director of Mobile at GIPHY after the company acquired his Techstars-backed startup /Slash Keyboard. He's seen the latest trends among teen apps, but believes there's potential to do anonymous social in a way that's safer without enabling bad behavior.

"We started playing around with this concept, and it also fit very well with the name 'ghost' because of anonymity," Kozinoglu explains. "But we also know there's a dark side of anonymity. [There are] these apps coming out -- Gas [which was acquired by Discord], Slay -- and they're purely focusing on cutting the chat and giving positive feedback to your peers...what we're doing is kind of like 'Gas meets Discord.' We want to add different flavors of anonymous messages," Kozinoglu says.

For example, one type of anonymous message Ghost enables is anonymous crushes. A user could say to the group they have a crush on someone without the sender revealing their name. Then, if the other person also has a crush on them, too, they would be able to have a private chat, similar to Tinder.

Image Credits: Ghost

In a group chat for a classroom at school, anonymity could allow students to ask questions among peers who may or may not be close friends.

There are also hidden messages which let users see who cares most about them, as the sender gets alerted as to who revealed the message.

"Guess Who" messages, meanwhile, initially hide the sender, allowing users to guess who sent the message.

Image Credits: Ghost

Not all these types of anonymous messages are live as of yet, but Kozinoglu says the Anon Crushes feature should be ready to ship by next week.

To add protections around anonymity, Ghost uses a moderation system that automatically deletes any Ghost message (anonymous message) if at least two people report it. If the same bad actor then sends two ghost messages that get reported, the app will block their anonymous identity in that particular group chat. That is, the app doesn't block the user themselves from the group chat, only their ability to post anonymously to the group. (In fact, the app itself doesn't even know which user to block because of its use of the Ghost protocol. It only knows which anonymous identity to restrict.)