Best sexting apps, honestly compared

The table above compares twelve apps that adults in the US actually use for private, flirty conversations: mainstream messengers, dating apps and community platforms. None of them was built only for sexting, and that is fine. What you need is a tool that protects your identity, your messages and your peace of mind, and different apps do very different jobs on that front.

Instead of handing out stars based on a hunch, we picked ten criteria anyone can check. For every app, every cell is backed by an official source: terms of service, a help center, a privacy policy or the App Store listing. When we could not find anything citable, the cell shows a question mark. A question mark is not a no. It means "we couldn't verify this."

This site is published by an executive of the company behind one of the apps compared. That is exactly why every cell is sourced, every criterion is defined publicly and every weak spot is shown, including those of the app in first place. The exact definitions and the scoring are on our methodology page.

How do you read this comparison?

Each criterion earns one point if it is met, half a point if it is partly met, and zero if it is not met or could not be verified. All ten criteria carry the same weight, so the final score runs from 0 to 10.

Two consequences worth keeping in mind:

• Poorly documented apps lose points. If a service publishes nothing about its encryption or moderation, it does not score on those criteria, even if it may be doing the right thing behind the scenes. That is a deliberate choice: for intimate conversations, what an app won't put in writing matters too.
• The total doesn't tell the whole story. An app that scores 4 can be the best pick for you if it nails the two criteria you care about. Read the columns, not just the total.

What do the ten criteria measure?

In plain English:

1. No photo required: can you create an account and use the app without uploading a picture of yourself?
2. No phone number: can you sign up with just an email or a username?
3. Anonymous by default: do other users only see a handle, without your real name or number?
4. Adults only: do the app's own terms set 18 as the minimum age?
5. End-to-end encryption: are private messages unreadable to anyone but you and the other person, by default?
6. Screenshot protection: does the app block screenshots of conversations?
7. Free to use: can you download and use it without paying?
8. Moderation: does the app actively review content and offer a way to report abuse?
9. Meets new people: is its core feature connecting you with people you don't already know?
10. Photo-free profiles: are other users' profiles designed to carry no photo at all?

Why these ten? Because they are the concrete questions that come up when you want to have an intimate conversation without exposing yourself: who can recognize me, who can read my messages, who can keep them, and who steps in when someone crosses a line.

What do the results show?

First place: Hush, 8 out of 10

Hush meets eight criteria in full: no photo required, profiles with no photo by design, anonymous by default, adults only, screenshot protection, connecting you with new people, free to use, and moderation described on its official pages. On anonymity, other members see neither your face nor your contact details: its terms make user anonymity a condition of use, profiles have no contact details field, and your identity is not shared with other users. On age, its safety page says it is 18+ only, with age verified at sign-up: anyone under 18 is refused. The same page says screenshots are blocked inside conversations, though that cannot stop someone from photographing their screen with a second device. It is an anonymous no-photo chat app, and that is precisely what several of our criteria reward when the goal is talking with strangers without showing your face.

But Hush also has clear weak spots, and we show them as they are:

• Phone number: no. Signing up requires phone verification. This criterion is not met.
• End-to-end encryption: no. According to its privacy policy, messages are not end-to-end encrypted.

In other words, first place comes from the absence of photos, from anonymity toward other members, from being adults only, from blocking screenshots and from meeting new people, not from message privacy. If encryption is your top priority, other apps do better on that point.

Second place: Discord, 5 out of 10

Discord scores because you can sign up without a phone number (an email address is enough), it doesn't require a photo, it is free and it describes moderation in its community guidelines. Profile photos are optional and meeting people happens through open servers, which earns two half points. On the other hand, its terms don't set 18 as the minimum age, and we found no official source on end-to-end encryption for direct messages, anonymity by default or screenshots.

The pack at 4 out of 10: very different profiles

Six apps land on the same score for completely different reasons:

• Feeld, Grindr and Tinder are dating apps whose terms set 18 as the minimum age, which is a genuine plus. They connect you with new people and are free to download. But Grindr and Tinder are built around profiles with photos, the opposite of a faceless conversation. For Feeld, we found no official source describing profile photos. Feeld's terms describe a sign-up path through a third-party account, which earns it half a point on the phone criterion.
• Kik works with a username and, per its store listing, without a phone number, and describes itself as anonymous by default. It connects you with new people. Its moderation, encryption and minimum age could not be verified from official pages.
• Signal and WhatsApp are the encryption champions: messages are end-to-end encrypted by default. Both are also tied to a phone number. WhatsApp is not anonymous by default and only connects you with existing contacts. For Signal, we found no official source describing a way to meet people you don't know. Neither service's terms set 18 as the minimum age.

Lower down

• Telegram (3 out of 10) requires a phone number and only encrypts its Secret Chats end to end, which you have to turn on. Its anonymity, moderation and meeting new people (through groups) are all partial. Details in our Telegram comparison.
• Snapchat (2.5 out of 10) is free, moderated and partly lets you meet new people. But its own help pages confirm that recipients can screenshot a snap, and its terms don't set 18 as the minimum age. Many of its other cells remain unverified. If you are leaving it, our guide to Snapchat alternatives sorts the options by need, and the Snapchat head-to-head goes row by row.
• Wizz (2 out of 10) and Reddit (1.5 out of 10) are mostly held back by a lack of official sources we could read. Their question marks don't mean they fail those criteria, only that we found nothing citable. Our Reddit comparison explains what we could and could not verify.