Despite pleas from a smaller company, also called Bolt, to pick a new name, Instagram is debuting its Bolt in a soft release fashion.
The Snapchat rival had flashed briefly on the horizon earlier this week, thanks to leaked ads. It is now officially in play, although in limited release.
The minimalist messaging app is only available to iOS and Android users in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.
A spinoff of Instagram, Bolt is Facebook's third attempt at releasing a Snapchat rival. With Bolt's take on the ephemeral messaging model made famous by Snapchat, a user taps on a recipient of an image or video and the content is sent out as soon as the individual lifts his or her finger from the contact.
While Bolt users can caption media, they can't edit the content before sending it. Then, with just a swipe of the received media, the content disappears forever.
Bolt seeks to serve as a medium for fast and raw exchanges between friends, an effort Facebook and Instagram hope will steal some thunder from Snapchat and its roughly 82 million active users.
"Keep up with your closest friends, so they can see the world through your eyes," stated Bolt's description. "Add up to 20 Favorites from your phone's contacts and swap unedited photos and videos. Swipe them away and they're gone. Send photos and videos to one person at a time to keep your conversations personal. One tap will take and send your photo. It's insanely simple, wicked fast photo messaging...maybe too fast?"
While users in the U.S. can only pour over screenshots and review Bolt's description, reviewers in Singapore are giving feedback on the Instagram spinoff. While the app is simple enough to use, one user said it offered no instruction and assumes its users were experienced with other ephemeral messaging apps.
"However, Bolt assumes that you are well acquainted with other similar apps -- it makes no attempt to explain how to take a photo or video," stated a reviewer in Singapore. "My colleague had problems figuring out how to take a video at first, saying that the user interface was unintuitive."
Roughly two days before the soft launch the "first" Bolt app company sought to avoid a naming conflict with the newer app. Its CEO pleaded with Instagram to choose another name for the ephemeral messaging app.
"We know it's a great name, because we chose it last year when we set out to build a better mobile voice and messaging experience," stated Bolt CEO Andrew Benton Benton. "We've worked really hard since then building the Bolt brand and technology to where it is today. Please don't destroy all that effort."
