It's been exactly three years since Confide, one of the most popular apps for naughty chats, officially shut down. We're still grieving the loss of this cross-platform gem. Confide’s disappearing messages and end-to-end encryption were beloved by celebrities, politicians, and ordinary people looking for a way to let loose without the headache of security concerns or a digital paper trail.  

If you're looking to fill a Confide-sized hole in your life, there are other great sexting platforms worth exploring, chief among them AdultFriendFinder. It doesn't have all of the same cybersecurity features of Confide — in fact, it doesn't even have an official phone app — but that hasn't stopped this site from accumulating millions of active users worldwide, making it a favorite stop for people looking to flirt with their fingers.   

Here's how AdultFriendFinder stacks up against Confide, in both positive and negative ways, and why you should consider giving it a try the next time you want to explore the internet's wild side:

Opens in a new window Credit: AdultFriendFinder AdultFriendFinder   Learn More

Finding a partner

The major difference between Confide and AFF, from a sexting perspective, comes down to how you find a partner. With Confide, you have to do the heavy lifting first. The platform isn't meant to help you meet strangers, only connect with people you already know in some capacity. With AFF, on the other hand, there's an in-built community of millions of people across the globe, all of them on the site to enjoy some adult fun.

SEE ALSO: I had a Grindr sugar daddy for a day. Then he tried to get a refund.

If you're looking to meet someone for the first time, or just connect for a quick naughty chat, AdultFriendFinder offers both a search function, allowing you to browse through local singles or even search by specific kinks, and a wide array of groups and discussion forums based around naughty topics as varied as bondage, foot fetishes and erotic story writing. 

Security

For privacy-minded people, Confide was a fantastic app, boasting end-to-end encryption across all communication formats (including photo and video), ScreenShield technology to guard against screenshots, and self-destructing messaging. All of these security features made it a highly attractive app for sexting, since the combination of cybersecurity, anonymity, and the promise of no digital record keeping allowed people a measure of security rarely found on other sites and apps.

Unfortunately, this is one area where AFF falls short. They've already had one major data breach in 2016, in which more than 400 million accounts were compromised, and though they've made real efforts to improve their security protocols since then, they still don't claim to have end-to-end messaging encryption. They do, however, offer ConfirmID to verify accounts, a process that requires both a government-issued ID card and a facial scan, so if you want to err on the side of caution, you can restrict your communications to verified accounts. 

Group messaging

Another huge benefit to Confide was the ability to find or create group chats, which helped people who shared a common kink or fantasy to establish their own digital spaces. AdultFriendFinder doesn't have a private messaging group chat, but it does offer kink-based, public-facing discussion groups and messaging boards, which offer a great place to meet like-minded people.

SEE ALSO: 3 AdultFriendFinder red flags — how to avoid scams on AFF

There's also nothing stopping you from using those groups to meet individuals. In fact, AFF actively encourages those interactions. So if you do find someone in a discussion forum that you happen to hit it off with, you can use that interaction to break the ice in a one-on-one private chat. 

Live broadcasts

One place Confide decidedly fell short was in broadcasting. You could use the app to send photos, videos and even voice notes, but you couldn't actually initiate a video call. While AFF doesn't yet offer one-on-one video conferencing, it does host webcam shows on its servers, so you can either start your own show and hope to attract someone that way or join the chat room of another person's show to shoot your shot. 

If you happen to join a popular live show and want to find a way to stand out from the crowd, AFF allows you to earn or purchase "points," which you can then use to tip the broadcaster, making your message pop in the cam chat. You can also initiate a private message with any person in the broadcast by navigating to the Viewers tab, scrolling down to the member you want to talk to and then clicking on the Private Chat icon to the right of their name.

Staying anonymous

If privacy is your primary concern, you shouldn't overlook AFF just because it lacks disappearing messages and end-to-end encryption. Spend a quick minute perusing profiles on the site and you'll see that many AdultFriendFinder users choose to remain largely anonymous, with no face photos or identifying information on their profiles at all. 

The site is remarkably generous in how it allows users to engage with it, and unlike with traditional dating sites, there's no obligation to show your face or even use your real name in a public-facing capacity. Moreover, there's a real culture of "anything goes" on the site, so if you want to use it as a traditional dating site, you can meet people who want that, but if you just want to use it for a sneaky link or a one-and-done dirty chat, that's also perfectly acceptable. 

The bottom line? What AFF lacks in security features, it more than makes up for with a massive userbase, a laissez-faire, sex-positive culture, and the option to keep your anonymity as you browse the site and search for a like-minded chat partner.