Shelly Palmer

Instagram May Have Leaked an Image of Bolt, its Snapchat Competitor

Instagram seems to have accidentally posted a link to its new “one tap photo messaging app” Bolt inside Instagram for Android. Tapping the “free” button yields a dead end in the Google Play Store. Only a few users seem to be seeing the link, and some of whom have posted screenshots on Twitter. Instagram hasn’t responded to a request for comment. Richard Grove, one of the few privy to the new banner ad, tells The Verge that he was using the official Instagram app on his Nexus 5 around 11PM ET last night when he first saw Bolt, and then it went away 15 minutes later. Another source using a Moto X confirmed that the Bolt banner showed up last night. Facebook frequently tests hidden features inside its Android and iOS app only to “activate” them later — this is how it rolls out new features over long periods of time — but sometimes the company has shown to be careless in doing so.

Read the full story at The Verge.