White House staffers are using this self-destructing messages app to gossip in private - here's how it works

There's a new messaging app trending in Washington D.C.

The Confide messaging app is used by White House staffers to gossip about the Trump administration in private, the Washington Post and Axios have reported.

The reason staffers chose Confide over other secure messaging apps, like Signal, is that Confide erases messages as soon as they're read.

This feature has lead to a big spike in Confide users in not only the government, but reporters as well. "Suddenly popular among White House reporters: Confide," Yahoo Washington correspondent Oliver Knox tweeted on Tuesday.

"It's absolutely bananas over here," Confide president Jon Brod told Business Insider, regarding the attention the small New York-based company has received after recent reports.

Confide is also introducing a new, free, verified-badge program for reporters around the world, Brod said in a Confide message. The blue checkmark goes next to the journalist's username. It works similarly to Twitter.

Here's what you need to know about Confide, the self-destructing messages app: