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Facebook has released Poke on the App Store, a new messaging app that lets users ‘Poke’ other users on iPhone with self-destructing messages. The app is essentially the same as Snapchat ^[2], but with the Poke branding brought in from Facebook. The app allows you to set messages to expire in 1, 3, 5 or 10 seconds after they are opened. Messages can only be sent between iPhone users that have Poke installed on their devices — if you send a message to someone without the app, they’ll be directed to the App Store instead.

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People have been known to circumvent the entire self-destruct idea by simply taking a screenshot of their device when viewing messages but Poke attempts to make that more difficult by requiring you to touch the screen to keep the message open. However, a few well placed fingers can easily get around this as well. That’s why when you do take screenshots, Poke will warn the other user — just like Snapchat does.

In my opinion, I don’t see people using self-destructing messages for anything else besides sexting. I mean, why not just message them normally? Maybe that’s just me.

Do you have any uses for self-destructing messages? Let us know in the comments ^[4] below!

[via The Verge ^[5]]