You may not be really conversant with Snapchat because it is not yet popular in Nigeria but it is really in use by the teens in America. Snapchat is a photo- and video-sharing app that deletes the photo and video forever after the receiver might have seen them. No history.. Nothing!
It’s cool, right? Instagram, which Facebook bought for $1 billion back in 2012, unveiled a new app this week called Bolt that mimics Snapchat’s messaging functions, complete with communications that self-destruct after being viewed.
How Does Instagram Bolt Works?
You sign up for Bolt with your phone number — no Instagram or Facebook account required. It uses your phone number to get your contacts, some of which you can add as favourites. Faces of all your friends in your Favorites list are shown as a scrollable row across the bottom of the screen.
Opening Bolt opens the Bolt camera, a camera with no shutter button. Once it launches, you can tap a friend’s profile image to send a photo or hold their image to send a video. There’s no uploading shots from your camera roll. A few buttons at the top let you switch the selfie mode, turn on your flash, or overlay big white text similar to Snapchat.
On Bolt, you can only share to one person at a time, and have to re-shoot to send to more. It’s ‘shake to unsend’ feature lets you retract a Bolt within the first few seconds of sending it by shaking your phone. That shake will also bring up the option to save your outgoing shot to your camera roll.
Anyone with your number saved in their contacts will be able to Bolt you, though there’s a weak little privacy option that lets you opt out of being searched for by phone number. You can block people who are annoying though.
If you receive a Bolt, you’ll get a notification in the top center of the app. Once you’ve viewed it, you swipe it away to delete it. You can also choose to reply with a Bolt, or send a text reply. Like Snapchat and Slingshot, once a friend has deleted a Bolt you sent them or its automatically destroyed after 30 days, it disappears from Instagram’s servers.
Where Can I Download Instagram Bolt ?
==> Download Instagram Bolt for iOS here
==> Download Instagram Bolt for Android here
Well, Bolt is not everywhere yet. Only Instagram users in New Zealand, Singapore or South Africa can get to access Bolt for now. Instagram is expected to introduce Bolt to additional countries “soon”.
If you are in Nigeria, the download links will not for you, try Snapchat for now 😉
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