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Slight lets you chat with strangers, but also snoop on others' conversations

Slight lets you chat with strangers, but also snoop on others' conversations

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Slight is the latest in a long line of anonymous chat apps to launch in the last year. Like Firechat, Slight lets you talk anonymously with people nearby, and like Yik Yak or Yobongo, you can post bulletins and shout-outs so people can read them. But Slight is different, because it doesn't care how you use it.

"It can be used to talk with the people around you, or just add thoughts or notes to places," creator Jon Nash told 032c. "Anonymity is a big part of it but it's more about organising information by location instead of social group." Nash first got the idea at a conference when he wished that he could talk trash with a friend a few rows away, but also with the rest of the audience. He wanted an app that could simulate the experience of chatting on Twitter about a conference speaker or sports game, but anonymously.

Slight for iPhone screenshots

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The beauty of Slight is that there's no log-in screen or registration of any kind, while even apps as simple as Secret force you to enter in your email before getting started. As soon as you open Slight, you're popped into a map view of your current location. You can drop a pin to create a conversation in your current location, or you can tap pins around the map to snoop on what other people are talking about. The first dozen pins or so I tapped were filled with terribly profane jokes and comments, like you might expect to find on an anonymous comment board, but I'd like to imagine Slight turning into something more. On a Friday night, perhaps, you could tap the pins on your favorite bars to see what people are talking about, or what tonight's password is for your favorite speakeasy.

Or, you could simply open the app to talk anonymously with the people at your current bar. The app only lets you chat with people within 40 meters (about 130 feet), but you can view other chats and upvote or downvote comments within them even if they're far away. Higher-ranked comments get bigger, while downvoted comments get smaller. Slight's utility seems solely dependent on how many people are using it, but unlike some other anonymous chat apps, Slight is as dynamic and flexible in nature as its users want it to be. And unlike other anonymous apps, Slight doesn't seem positioned for hooking up or for spreading lies. Now that's something to talk about.