Gas and tbh’s New App developer turns iMessage into Snapchat

Apple tends to find ways to kill popular apps, but this time someone else has done it for them. Nikita Bier, software developer with Midas Touch, announced a new product on Wednesday – an app called blow up It brings disappearing messages and texts directly to iMessage. Have someone go on Snapchat and see how they feel.

Explode is pretty simple: it lets anyone with the app send texts and photos with a limited viewing window. Once they’re gone, they’re gone for good. It also doesn’t require either party to install the app to use it – only the sender needs to install the app, and they can choose how long the text or image is available.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to announce my latest app:

Introducing Explode
· Send disappearing texts and photos within iMessage
· Only the sender needs an app: Drop them directly into your chats
· Screenshots are also blocked

Why did we build it? Explode is malicious software. Yes, a… pic.twitter.com/mGwmoN28T8

— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) January 14, 2025

Although the app is free to download, there are paid, premium features. For $39.99 a year or $7.99 a month, users can subscribe to Explode+ to receive screenshot alerts, block screenshots, review messages they’ve previously sent, and lock viewing a photo after it’s sent to keep it accessible.

If it sounds awful like Snapchat and its premium option, Snapchat+, that’s very much on purpose. Bier described Explode as a “sharp app” in response to a bad experience he had with Snapchat.

“Two years ago, I met with the CEO of Snapchat and discussed buying my previous company. I shared openly how fast we are growing. Just one week later — on Thanksgiving — Snapchat pulled our app from the SnapKit platform, bringing our growth to an abrupt halt,” Bier said. he wrote on Twitter. “As Genghis Khan once said: the greatest pleasure is to defeat your enemies, rob them of their wealth, and see them drown in tears.”

Bier has a lot of experience dealing with big players in technology. He later sold his first viral hit, an anonymous survey app called tbh, to Facebook it collects more than two million daily users. His second big foray into the app game was an anonymous complimenting app called Gas Sold to Discord after seven million downloads — and based on Bier’s timeline of the Snapchat beef, it’s likely the app he’s talking to the company about.

So, will Explode be able to make a dent in Snapchat’s user base? There is good enough reason to be suspicious. The ephemeral nature of lost texts and pictures is undoubtedly Snapchat’s selling point, and the gamification of these communications keeps people (mostly teenagers) coming back. Snapchat Streaks – a record of how many days two people have been messaging back and forth real social capital among teenagersSnapchat cups and friend tags are also assigned based on how often users interact with each other.

Snapchat’s secret sauce isn’t disappearing messages—it’s successfully replicated by nearly every app, including Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and Telegram. It’s definitely addictive social gamification not good for the general welfare number of people interested in friendship metrics, but probably good for Snapchat’s longevity.