Meh Sahj
It was during a summer vacation on one of the German islands1. I was queueing with one of my girls in line for a huge trampoline, and two other girls - probably around the age of 13 - were right in front of us and talking to each other. I was bored, and it's not as if I could just close my ears, so I listened.
They clearly had met only recently during their vacation, and were debating how to stay in contact. But alas, one had only TikTok, but no Instagram, and the other had only Instagram, but no TikTok. Neither had WhatsApp, and both weren't allowed to install new apps. What to do?
Then one of them remembered something. A secret, no less: "There's an app", she said to the other girl, "that is installed automatically on each phone. You can't uninstall it, and you can use it a bit like WhatsApp. All you need is the other person's phone number!"
The other girl looked at the first one in disbelief. "Really?", she asked. "Yes", said the first, "It's called Meh Sahj". The other went through the apps on her phone, while the first girl spelled it out: "M-E-S-S..." - "Found it!" said the other, and stared at her new friend, who was clearly some hacker type, in awe.
I felt old.
Yes, Germany has those.↩