Off The Record messaging is a browser addon for Chrome (Firefox and Internet Explorer coming soon), to automatically erase messages you send to your friends or co-workers after they have been viewed. When someone receives or views a photo sent with OTR they have five seconds before it self-destructs, this default setting can be changed to a longer period of time if you wish so. You have to register your email address and a password to install the plugin, then you will see a bright OTR button on the top right corner of the browser, you need to add contacts or send invites by email before you can communicate, only other OTR users in your contact list and with he same plugin installed will be able to read the messages.
A small window opens when you click on the OTR button, big enough to write a few hundred words, photos can not be attached, they have to be taken with the computer camera.
Off The Record browser plugin self-erasing messages
This is a very basic plugin in features and security, not suitable for high privacy, anyone can take a screenshot or photo of the message and preserve it, it will only be of real benefit to avoid exposing personal messages by accident by keeping them off email services that archive all conversations, e.g. Gmail. Off The Record browser plugin target public are company workers who don’t want the boss to learn what they are gossiping about in the office, it could do the trick for that purpose, but it will not keep a very determined boss or IT administrator from learning what messages are being exchanged, a packet sniffer is all someone would need to spy on you since there is no mention of encryption anywhere in OTR specifications.
You should not confuse this plugin with the excellent Pidgin OTR plugin for Instant Messenger, they both have the same name but are very different.