SA first out of blocks with speedy Bolt photo app
IN an unprecedented move, a global social media service has chosen South Africa as one of the first countries in the world to be able to use a major new mobile application.
Instagram, the wildly popular mobile app for adding special effects to photos taken on cellphones and tablets, has launched its first separate app, called Bolt, initially only in South Africa, Singapore and New Zealand.
Designed as a “visual messaging” tool, it is claimed to be the fastest way to share a photo or video.
A single tap on the name of a pre-selected contact, while the camera is aimed at a scene, allows a user to take a photo and send it to the contact simultaneously.
Instagram’s parent company, Facebook, and sister company WhatsApp, are respectively the most popular social networking and instant messaging services in South Africa. Instagram quickly became a hit here when it first became available on Android phones.
“We decided to launch to a handful of countries where Instagram was already very popular,” said Gabe Madway, head of communications for Instagram. “We wanted to go with a handful of countries just to make sure that, when we start, we can grow quickly and maintain a great experience.”
Instagram had more than 1.4 million users in South Africa in mid-2013, a year after it became available for Android phones.
“Instagram is more popular outside the US, with 65% of its user base overseas, so it makes sense that we would first go international,” Madway said. “We were looking for launch
We thought there could be improvement in the way people share images
countries with very tightly interconnected groups of people, a large proportion of Englishspeakers and a high proportion of phone users who were on the most recent versions of Android.”
Most Android phones in South Africa are relatively new, which means high potential take-up of Bolt.
“A lot of countries could fit into one or two of these categories, but we wanted to have some geographical and cultural diversity,” said Madway.
He said Windows phones would be next in line to receive the app. However, there were no plans for a BlackBerry version.
The app appears to draw on features of WhatsApp and SnapChat — a controversial app that sets a photo to “self-destruct” within seconds of it being viewed by the recipient. Bolt also does not allow the recipient to save the image or video, which is deleted once viewed.
Madway denied that there was any connection.
“As a company, Instagram is focused on visual communications. When we look at new product development, we come with two key objectives: what problem we want to solve, and how to solve it with the simplest approach possible.
“We said we want to build the fastest tool for visual communications, rather than build something in response to what others are already doing. Mobile messaging is the way most of us communicate, and we thought there could be improvement in the way people share images.
“It typically can take from three to 10 steps and a long time. Bolt has the ease and immediacy of SMS, but with images and video. It’s meant to be very fast and in the moment.”