Facebook introduced reactions last year which gave users a way to express their feeling about a post beyond that of a simple like, and those are now coming to the Facebook Lite app in India, along with custom camera filters, and geographically themed frames based on a user’s location. These features have been available on the normal Facebook app for some time, but took a while to be optimized and compressed to a level that’s acceptable for Facebook Lite, given that its purpose is to use a minimal amount of bandwidth and processing power. These features are coming to Facebook Lite users in India for now, with no word on exactly when they will come to other areas.
Facebook Lite users in India now have access to the same reactions as those using the normal Facebook app or browsing Facebook on the web. Mark Zuckerberg, in his post announcing the new features, noted that reactions have been used over 300 billion times since they launched. As for the new custom photo filters and frames, they include a good number of touches to cater specifically to the Indian market. New greetings and phrases like “Namaste” are in the mix, and some of the new custom geo-filters include unique frames for places like Mumbai and Delhi. Like any other custom frames and filters, these can be used when taking a picture from within the app, or uploading a picture taken elsewhere. These features are apparently used in much the same manner as they would be in the standard Facebook app.
Facebook Lite launched back in 2015 as a way to bring the convenience and streamlined integration of a dedicated app to Facebook users in developing markets throughout places like Asia and Europe, where people may find themselves using low-end devices or slow network connections. Among other features, such as caching for offline use, Facebook lite is only 1MB in size, making it arguably the most lightweight Facebook client out there that’s more than just a wrapper for the mobile site. For the time being, it’s still only officially available in target countries where Facebook chooses to deploy it, though it does work fine for Facebook users in other areas if they simply download the APK file outside of the Play Store.