For countries that don’t have the benefit of fast internet or good data coverage opening up the Facebook app can be quite a pain with the connection more or less ruining the experience.
Initially available in developing countries, Facebook has finally launched the “diet” version of the app on the Google Play Store, Facebook Lite to help developing countries deal with sluggish data connections by trimming down the access fat for a simpler experience. The app has already been in development for about a year with the purpose of having it functional on any Android device regardless of what’s under the hood.
Basically the features that have been removed are the most data sucking ones, like video and features like Nearby Friends to create a smoother experience even on older Android phones. The app also uses much lower-res thumbnails when displaying images so users won’t be running their data like water. To sum it up, the app is designed to use as little as possible and this is reflected in its practically weightless download size of 1MB.
If you want to give it a go you can download the app here.
