Victoria’s Secret has become first brand to inte­grate chat fea­tures from ephemer­al mes­sag­ing start-up Frankly into its PINK Nation app, which will allow mil­len­ni­als to con­nect and chat through the brand­ed app.

Victoria’s Secret is per­haps bet­ter known for ephemer­al garb than mes­sag­ing, but the brand has nev­er­the­less teamed up with Frankly, which calls itself an ephemer­al mes­sag­ing app and chat tech­nol­o­gy that brings “per­son­al­i­ty, emo­tion and pri­va­cy to mobile mes­sag­ing,” to pow­er chat in the former’s PINK Nation iOS and Android apps.

Frankly says the part­ner­ship marks the start of its new focus on “bring­ing chat tech­nol­o­gy to oth­er app devel­op­ers through its new­ly launched Chat SDK,” which it says pow­ers chat for brands.

Vic­to­ri­a’s Secret is the first brand to inte­grate Chat SDK into its exist­ing mobile expe­ri­ence, said Har­ri­son Shih, vice pres­i­dent of prod­uct and mar­ket­ing for Frankly. How­ev­er, he notes Frankly has worked with “oth­er major brands like KISS FM and top tier social media stars” to help engage with fans through mes­sag­ing.

“We are cur­rent­ly work­ing close­ly with strate­gic ear­ly part­ners to bring chat to their users,” Shih said.

Frankly enables con­sumers with the PINK Nation app to con­nect dig­i­tal­ly through the app. Per Shih, Frankly is “cus­tomiz­able and reflec­tive of emo­tions.”

“You can shout and whis­per using dif­fer­ent fonts, col­ors and emo­jis. You can send dis­ap­pear­ing text, video and voice, or pin to keep the mes­sage,” he said. “If you want to recall or unsend your mes­sages before they’re seen or read by the receiv­er, that is your choice.”

In addi­tion, Shih said Frankly lets users have con­trol over their “dig­i­tal foot­print,” which allows them to be open and hon­est “with­out wor­ry of leav­ing a per­ma­nent mark.”

Beyond com­mu­ni­cat­ing with friends, Shih said Frankly’s “Super­group” fea­ture allows “theme-based chat­ting” as a way for users to meet new peo­ple, and find new friends with sim­i­lar inter­ests.

“We offer app devel­op­ers the abil­i­ty to add a chat func­tion to their app through our Chat SDK,” Shih said. “With that, fans can engage inter­ac­tive­ly with the brand, inside their own app.”

Frankly’s inte­grat­ed chat expe­ri­ence with brands and oth­er appli­ca­tions enables mil­len­ni­als to chat where they already are, Shih said. That means that rather than switch­ing app expe­ri­ences to var­i­ous mes­sag­ing and/or social apps, young con­sumers can instead par­tic­i­pate in con­ver­sa­tions and engage with the com­mu­ni­ty they already are in.

Frankly has over 2 mil­lion down­loads to date and is avail­able for iOS and Android devices. Shih said Frankly’s core demo­graph­ic is teenage girls.

“Frankly has stood for expres­sive­ness that repli­cates real world con­ver­sa­tions, which has been a huge draw for mil­len­ni­als,” Shih said.

In a release, lifestyle brand Victoria’s Secret PINK says it is “ded­i­cat­ed to the inde­pen­dent and inspired col­le­giate girl.”

Per Google Play, PINK Nation has 1 to 5 mil­lion down­loads.

What do you think of this brand­ed ephemer­al mes­sag­ing fea­ture?