There’s no real way around it, Facebook is a data hog. If you’ve ever used Facebook on your smartphone or tablet, then you know exactly what I’m talking about. It uses quite a bit of data. For those with unlimited data or even 3GB plans, that’s not really an issue. But those in developing countries where you are lucky to get 500MB of data, that is a big problem. For Facebook. Facebook has been targeting developing countries lately, as many users in those countries are not on Facebook, and the company wants to continue to grow – naturally. Facebook started testing out Facebook Lite in January in a few countries. But today the social network made it official.
In Facebook’s official post today,
“More than a billion people around the world access Facebook from a range of mobile devices on varying networks. In many areas, networks can be slow and not able to support all the functionality found in Facebook for Android. Facebook Lite was built for these situations, giving people a reliable Facebook experience when bandwidth is at a minimum. Facebook Lite is less than 1MB so it is fast to install and quick to load. It includes Facebook’s core experiences like News Feed, status updates, photos, notifications and more.”
Where Facebook Lite is just 1MB in size, that is much smaller than the 40MB size that is on my LG G4 (that’s before I even opened it). Which makes it quick and easy to download and install Facebook Lite, as well as browse through pictures, status updates and more by optimizing the network.
Right now, Facebook is rolling out the Facebook Lite app to various countries in Asia. With parts of Latin America, Africa and Europe getting the app in the weeks to come. No word on if or when it’ll be coming to the US, as it would be nice to use here. Especially as more and more people are opting for smaller data plans and smartphones with less internal storage. With unlimited data plans becoming extinct, we think Facebook Lite needs to be available worldwide, so more users will use the service on mobile without worrying about data usage.
