Facebook launches Instagram Lite in 170 countries with lower bandwidth - Android

Facebook has rolled out a lite version of Instagram dubbed Instagram Lite which has been launched in 170 countries with poor internet connectivity. The service will be mostly launched in rural and remote communities to provide them with the experience of the photo-sharing app with minimal bandwidth. Instagram Lite will be available only for Android […]

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Facebook has rolled out a lite version of Instagram dubbed Instagram Lite which has been launched in 170 countries with poor internet connectivity. The service will be mostly launched in rural and remote communities to provide them with the experience of the photo-sharing app with minimal bandwidth.

Instagram Lite will be available only for Android users initially and the company has not announced when it will be rolling out the iOS version of the app.

“Starting today, people in more than 170 countries will be able to download Instagram Lite in the Google Play Store to have a high-quality Instagram experience, no matter what network or device they’re on. We will be rolling out the app globally soon,” Facebook said.

What does Instagram Lite offer?

The new app just takes up just 2MB of space on your Android smartphone which is considerably less as the full version of the app requires close to 30MB space. Despite that, the app retains some of the key features that people will be able to use on entry-level smartphones.

Facebook said that it took some inspiration from Facebook Lite to design the lite version of Instagram and by offloading most of the code that’s running the app to the cloud. Among the features included in the app is the short video feature Reels.

The developers had to make some sacrifices to make the app reliable. The team removed much of the ornate, rich animations like cube transitions and AR filters. However, they kept features that could deliver joy with less data, like GIFs and stickers.

Other omissions include certain icons that do not make sense for digital app users. Users won’t see the Trash icon on the lite version of the app, however, the company has added an ‘X’ character to imply the same.

Instagram Lite was also launched back in 2018 after it was pulled from the Google Play Store due to some issues with the app. The new Instagram Lite app began testing in India in December 2020 and will be rolled out to users in the country in a phased manner.