Yovo, an app by ContentGuard that encompasses both photo privacy and social media sharing, launched Wednesday.

The app joins the likes of privacy messaging apps such as SnapChat and Wickr, but it offers the ability to share selectively on social media sites and it also prevents screen captures.

"It's clear users want more privacy for their messaging apps," ContentGuard Chief Product Officer Scott Richardson told CNBC. But, he added, users don't necessarily want to be tethered to a specific app.

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"The vision challenge was: Can we make privacy more social?" Richardson said.

The app overlays a "fence effect" on photos, scrambling the image to other devices to thwart screen captures while allowing it to be seen by the human eye. The technology allows users to set longer expiration times, as well, Richardson added.

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"People like self-destruct messages, but they like them to last for more than 6 seconds," he said.

The free iOS app could eventually be used to serve up uncopiable music, movies, documents, digital coupons and ticketing, Richardson said.

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Yovo, which stands for "you only view once, is expected to be available for Android smartphones in the next few weeks.

ContentGuard is a subsidiary of Pendrell.