Instagram Joins the ‘Instant Share and Delete’ Game with its Bolt App
Snapchat began a race for instant messaging in which the content disappears once it is viewed. Now Instagram has brought its own app to counter Snapchat’s dominance in the field. Facebook did try to take on Snapchat with its Slingshot app which garnered a lukewarm response. Now it attempts to try the same with its subsidiary, Instagram.
You don’t have to look around in your huge contact list to find folks you chat with the most. The app lets you have upto 20 favorites to share your images with. To take a snap you just have to tap the contact for a snap or tap and hold to record a video. The UI is really minimalistic and easy to understand.
To sign up for the service you will only need your phone number. You don’t need a Facebook or Instagram account. This is the moment of evolution in mobile chat where text is slowly replaced by photos and videos. The service also lets you bring back deleted pics to return within the first few seconds of deleting if you wanted to see that snap once more, before it goes into oblivion. The one sect of people who will be particularly disappointed by these developments are the NSA analysts. Those guys had to deal with reading all those emails and texts were having an easier time with images, but instantly deletable messages might be an issue for them. But they might just hack into the service to retrieve the information.
Even though the app is available for iOS or Android, Bolt is currently only available in Singapore as an app called Bolt already exists. The other Bolt is a mobile voice app and has been around for quite a while. The developers of the other Bolt, Benton have filed an application but haven’t got a trademark yet. They are adamant about keeping the name. Benton were also eventually going to start their own messaging service. But with a prominent company like Instagram coming out with a messaging app with the name Bolt would prevent that from happening.
It will be interesting to see which side caves first. Will it be the big pocketed Facebook or Benton? For the moment if you want Instagram’s Bolt, you can download the apk available easily online.
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