“Alexa, open Real Secrets.”

Hear real secrets.

When you say “Alexa, open Real Secrets” to an Alexa-enabled device, you’ll hear the secrets of real people, sent anonymously to Real Secrets.

Every day, you’ll hear new secrets that will amaze, delight, rattle, or enlighten you. Sign up for our closed Beta and get early access to Real Secrets.

Tell your secrets.

Send us a secret, and who knows? The next one we select might just be yours. 

Write a secret below then press Tell My Secret. We won’t ask for and do not want your name or email address, nor will we track or identify you in any way.  For more information about how this all works, please read Frequently Asked Questions, below.

By submitting a secret here, you affirm that you are at least 18 years old and acknowledge that you’ve read and agreed to both our Terms of Service and our Privacy Policy. Want early access to the Alexa Skill? Join our beta test program!

 

Frequently Asked Questions

is this really anonymous?

Yes. We don’t ask for or want your email address or any other information about you. 

can i tell you anything?

Yes, you can. But to be perfectly transparent, we will not accept or select anything that violates our Terms of Service, is destructive, or otherwise harmful to anyone. Any of that goes straight into the bin. Also, if you tell us who you are, somehow, we will delete your secret and never think about it again. That’s automatic. Otherwise, feel free…

What happens to my secret after i hit send?

sYour secret arrives in our Hello inbox, and is added to the others received that day. We read through and select new ones for the next day’s Real Secrets. Usually this will happen before midnight (Pacific/US time) so that there are new real secrets awaiting listeners the next morning. 

Who made this?

Real Secrets was created by:

Ron Martinez, Headcanon founder and media inventor, and a pioneering narrative game and simulation designer, producer, and developer. Ron, former VP Intellectual Property for Yahoo! and creator of book retailing platform, Aer.io, also brings a continuing focus on novel commerce and distribution models to his work in narrative systems design.

Maja Thomas, Headcanon Producer/Creator, and global Chief Innovation Officer for Paris-based Hachette Livre. Maja has won multiple Grammy Awards for her Spoken Word producing and directing. She is also the creator of audiobook divisions for both Time Warner and the Hachette Book Group.

Where did you get this idea?

One of the creators of Real Secrets used to ride around in taxis in Manhattan, late at night or even early the next morning, after working all night. He would sometimes tell the driver things he couldn’t say to anyone else, knowing that he’d probably never see that driver again in that big city. 

Once, he did get the same driver two nights in a row! A bit embarrassed, he pretended not to notice, until the driver said, “Hey, how’s that thing you told me about going?” 

He was a good guy, but still, we’ll make sure that doesn’t happen here. 

Why would I send you a secret?

We hope that the ability to share what is otherwise never said aloud, in this age of social tracking and privacy invasion, helps secret tellers to feel a sense of liberation, and even relief. And it may help someone else to not feel so alone, or to share in the joy of a joyful secret.

Why would i listen to strangers' secrets?

We’re all human, but we play our parts, rarely showing others who we really are. We show each other versions of ourselves–we are the co-worker, the sibling, the lover, the stranger in an elevator. What if we could listen in on one another, hear their thoughts, hear the truths that maybe no one has ever heard before? That magical experience is what we hope listening every day to Real Secrets can give you.

Do you end up somehow owning my secrets?

You own your secrets (and remember, we don’t know who you are) forever. By submitting a secret you, whoever you are, grant us an unlimited right to use your secrets in any form at any time, in any medium now known or invented henceforth, throughout the known universe, forever. For eternity, anywhere in this galaxy. Other galaxies…

Okay, okay, you win. We hereby forego the right to publish your secrets in any as-yet undiscovered universes. 

For additional information, please also see our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

Any advice about telling my secret?

The secrets that work best on the Real Secrets voice app are those that can be told directly and economically–a secret told with fewer words are better than something longer, with a lot of digressions. 

Think of it is something you might say in a conversation, rather than as a short story or extended monologue.

At the same time, please be yourself! Don’t hesitate to be funny, or dramatic, conspiratorial in tone, or however else you think it’s best to communicate something that is so deeply personal.

Real Secrets is meant to help us get things off our chest, to let others hear our thoughts so that maybe we won’t feel so alone. And who knows? You may just brighten someone’s day with a secret so unexpected it delights and enlightens!

At the same, if you happen to be having a hard time and don’t know where to turn, please reach out and call one of many hotlines where real people are ready and waiting to help you. You can find one here.

Anything else I should know?

No. Just that you are unique.

You are valuable.

And you are loved.

Join the Real Secrets Alexa Skill Beta Program

Real Secrets is currently in closed beta testing, but you can sign up as a tester for beta access to the Alexa Skill. Just tell us your email address, and we’ll get you on board. Note: we absolutely will not correlate beta emails to submitted secrets!

If you do join, you have our gratitude for helping to make Real Secrets the best it can be!

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