Unseen, a social networking application for college students, is now available to students of The University of Akron. The cell phone application allows students to anonymously share photos and messages.

“Unseen was created to help students form meaningful connections based on real interests, and user privacy and anonymity is absolutely integral to that,” said Michael Schramm, CEO of Unseen.

The latest version of Unseen allows users to send private and secured messages. Within the direct messaging function, images and text can be sent fully encrypted between users.

“We love that students are using the app as a means to meet new people, but publically swapping Snapchat handles undermines anonymity,” said Schramm.

Unseen’s makers noticed students would use the app to meet new people and then exchanging Snapchat or Kik handles to continue conversations outside the public feed. In the interests of privacy, the application developed a secure direct messaging feature to protect users’ identities.

Intercepted messages sent through Unseen are rendered completely unreadable by an extensive encryption process. Once viewed, the message self-deletes.

Unseen does have restrictions on graphic content, harassment and advertising.

Unlike other social applications, Unseen doesn’t take contact information or track geological data of its users. It also cannot be intercepted by 3rd party applications and stored on the Cloud.

In addition to interface, Schramm said, “[Unseen] also decided to make Unseen available to every four-year college in the country, regardless of the size of their student body. Now students from any American college or university can register their alma mater for Unseen’s waitlist.”

First released in May 2014 to Texas A&M University students, Unseen is now used on almost 150 college campuses and continues to grow, with many universities waiting in a virtual line to gain access.

To download Unseen, visit the Apple or Google application store.