Facebook introduces new Facebook Lite Android app for emerging markets

If you remember, Facebook redesigned its main Android app last year to provide better performance, data efficiency, networking, and application size for low-cost Android devices. But now it looks like that Facebook is satisfied with that. The social giant has quietly launched a lighter version of its official Android app for the consumers in the emerging markets.

Unlike the existing Facebook for Android app, which is over 27MB in size (in high-end phones, there are multiple APKs for different phones), the new Facebook Lite app weighs just 252KB. It is now available in markets such as Bangladesh, Nepal, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Zimbabwe. There is no word on whether the app will reach other markets, but if it indeed sees decent adoption in the target markets, I don’t see why Facebook won’t expand its availability.

With its overall low size and footprint, the Facebook Lite has been built for affordable Android smartphones, which don’t include much internal storage. The app is also likely to consume less data than the main app to help the users with their data costs and work efficiently in locations with slower data speed.

During my brief usage of the Facebook Lite app, I found it to be working quite nicely and majority of the features have been included. Apart from the overall user-interface, one won’t miss much in the new app.