It looks like Instagram may have accidentally spilled the beans on a new photo messaging app, titled “Bolt.”
A banner notification was spotted by a handful of Instagram for Android users that said “Introducing Bolt – one tap photo messaging.” It quickly disappeared, but not before a couple of users snapped some screenshots.
Did anyone else get this weird bolt notification on their Instagram earlier? pic.twitter.com/SBrLH7qTTK
— areli i (@yo_areli) July 24, 2014
The in-stream banner was only up for a few minutes, and while it was up it pointed users to a dead link in the Google Play Store.
What is this, @instagram? #bolt pic.twitter.com/orbOIDU215
— Richard Groves (@englishinvader) July 24, 2014
The Verge speculates that Bolt could be Instagram’s Snapchat competitor, or maybe Facebook’s attempt to tap into the “one tap” photo messaging world currently inhabited by apps like Taptalk.
If this was in fact an accidental app leak, it wouldn’t be the first for Facebook (or a Facebook-owned company, more specifically) in recent memory. Whatever Instagram Bolt turns out to be or not to be, let’s just hope it has a reason to exist.
Image via Thinkstock