Psst! There’s a new version of anonymity-based social app Secret on the way

Social media app Secret is relaunching its offering with a new version of the app which promises to be faster and more text-based than before, according to a report in The Verge.

Secret, which trades on the anonymity it gives to its users, launched in February and quickly became one of the most hyped new social media apps of 2014. By July, the app was being given a market valuation of $US100 million ($A122m), spurred by a $US25 million funding round.

However, in recent months the app has taken a substantial hit in popularity.

At the height of its popularity, the app was number one in the App Store in seven different countries and had been downloaded more than 15 million times in the space of 10 months. But according to figures from app analytics website App Annie, Secret is no longer even in the top 1500 of apps downloaded.

The swift fall from its heady heights comes as other anonymity-based social networks seek to gain a stronger foothold in the market.

One of Secret’s biggest competitors in the space, Whisper, has also run into trouble, with reports in October it was allegedly gathering data on users that it then shared with the US Defense Department and other government agencies.