Instagram Lite Returns, Officially Debuting in Over 170 Countries

Instagram Lite is back, officially this time, rolling out in over 170 countries Wednesday. A slimmed-down Instagram Lite Android application was initially tested in 2018, and that version disappeared last year in favor of a revamped version that began testing in India last December and eventually became the app that debuted Wednesday. The new Instagram Lite requires 2 megabytes to download, compared with 30 MB for the full version of Instagram. It offers key Instagram features such as: editing, sharing and viewing photos and videos; stickers; creating and viewing Stories; long-form videos from IGTV; and the Explore tab for content discovery. Features that didn’t make the cut include advertising, the ability to create Reels (they can be viewed), dark mode, shopping and end-to-end encryption. Facebook said in a Newsroom post Wednesday that it took the same approach as it did with the Facebook Lite app, offloading much of the code needed to run the app onto the cloud instead of storing it on users’ devices. The social network added that the focus was on video and messaging, which are used more actively by people in remote areas than by those in urban areas, adding, “To keep performance reliable, the team removed much of the ornate, data-rich animation, such as cube transitions and the augmented reality filters people can apply to faces. However, they kept features that could deliver joy with less data, like GIFs and stickers. They also got rid of certain icons that do not make sense to new digital users. For instance, a trash can icon did not resonate as a symbol for getting rid of something, but an ‘X’ rang clear.” Instagram Lite is available via the Google Play Store in over 170 countries, with plans to roll the app out worldwide soon. The app was developed by a team in Tel Aviv, Israel, in collaboration with a New York-based team that included design, engineering, product and research. Pointing out that only about one-half of households in India have internet access, Tel Aviv-based product manager Michelle Lourie wrote in the Newsroom post, “No matter where they are, people want to be entertained and inspired by those that they love. It’s difficult to do that on Instagram with an entry-level phone that has storage constraints.” Facebook Tel Aviv director of product management Tzach Hadar added. “Our teams build these lightweight versions of our apps for people with low connectivity or limited data plans because our basic premise is to leave no one behind. We wanted the Instagram experience to remain fast, high-quality and reliable, irrespective of the device, platform and network people are on.”

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Instagram Lite Returns, Officially Debuting in Over 170 Countries

The slimmed-down Android app was first tested in 2018

David Cohen

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