Ben Givon: Instagram Launches a Revised Instagram Lite Version in 170 Regions
The latest announcement by Facebook confirmed that its revamped version of the Instagram Lite App will be available in 170 additional regions, after the initial launching in India took place back in December. The project was originally shut down in May last year without a complete explanation behind the decision to abandon the two-year-long project. With the pandemic limiting socializing and people subsequently looking for new ways to connect, Facebook revisited the idea; something that led to the development of this advances, more tight version of IG Lite.
Instagram Lite will take up only 2MB to download on Android in contrast with 30MB required for the full sized version of the application. The Lite version contains almost all of Instagram’s regular features, lacking only some of the more advanced tools like AR filters etc. Facebook rebooted the project with the intention to easily keep even more people connected; if we know for a fact that 63% of the world is online and those numbers rise to 90% in North America only, many of the other regions that are unable to connect will be excluded. Not all countries have robust internet networks, most recent smartphones nor super affordable data plans, which makes it impossible to consume Instagram’s data-rich visuals. India is named as an example in the Facebook official statement, with only 50% of households having internet access.
This is one of the reasons behind introducing it to India for the first time, the other one being an ongoing Facebook’s campaign to pick up TikTok users following the ban made by the Indian government that included 59 Chinese apps. The updated version of the Lite App supports Reels as well — the idea was to push the app in India in order to gain more users through the new and improved Instagram Lite. With only few features left out of the rotation and a much lesser data usage, the app could boost usage across the board substantially. Instagram announced an all regions launch soon, so even more people can be and stay connected.
After India, additional 170 countries worldwide, which include low connectivity regions have been awarded with the new Lite version of the Instagram app. Some of the main differences, despite the size and the possibility of running the app on minimal spec smartphones, is that it can work in a slow internet service environment (2G). The original Instagram app saves all data in the phone storage, while the IG Lite offloads most of the code needed to run the app to the cloud. Instagram Live features have been removed from the new version, as well as many icons such as the Trash icon etc. New languages are also included, namely 9 Indian languages: Bengali, Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Gujarati, Punjabi, Marathi and Telugu. Dark mode is one of the unavailable features on Instagram Lite.
Last but not least, the new Instagram Lite app is currently only available for Android users — the iOS version launch date is still not announced. Nevertheless, this new option that expands to multiple regions and numerous countries will surely enlarge the Facebook Inc Instagram user base and provide more connectivity to those who do not have as many technical perks as some economically developed countries do. Ben Givon recommends installing and trying out the app to see what works best for you!
