Facebook is not a business biggie, it is a giant (and in many senses of course). So, when a mobile application is launched by Facebook in a manner which is not aimed at promotion and released only on Android, its review is worth a try. Facebook recently launched its app called ‘Facebook Lite’ exclusively for Android users of certain countries with low bandwidths. The app, as the name suggests, is a lite version of Facebook’s default app for accessing one’s Facebook account.
The app, according to Facebook, will need lesser system and OS requirements, and is capable of working properly on a slower network base like EDGE. This itself implies the app is not for everyone.
The app is currently available on Google Play for the citizens of countries across Asia and will soon be available to Latin American, African and European people too. It can also be downloaded from a third party website if it’s not available in your location.
Coming to what the app feels like, there are no points for guessing that a lot of graphical material has been cut down to give the app a basic look. Although, the app retains the trademark Facebook look with blue backgrounds here and there, the overall feel is different from the default app.
The app couldn’t possibly be smaller in download size. It will take 252 KBs of your mobile data for the app to get installed in your phone as compared to about 35 MBs of the default app. The data stored on the device post usage is also less even for the phones that came to the market several years back. Basically, the app is tiny, as it was meant to be tiny. But is it as fast as it is meant to be?
Many people have put doubts on that. Some people have said from their personal experiences that the app takes longer to load initially even than the default Facebook app on the same network. Not only this, the lite app contradictory renders more internet bytes than the default app. A reason for this might be that the lite app loads more stories as compared to the default app at once.
The good part about this app, which needs a sure-shot mention is that it has your Facebook inbox as a module of the app so that you can check your messages in the app itself rather than checking them on some web browser by refreshing the page repeatedly. We can’t talk about Facebook’s Messenger app simply because the app is aimed at the users with slower networks.
This gives a way to those people who simply don’t want two big apps in the form of Facebook and its messenger sucking out the battery and RAM to use one account of Facebook so that they can do all the Facebook stuff on the Lite app alone without having to drain phone’s resources because both the apps will work smooth on good bandwidths.
The app is a smart move to both providing variety in services to consumers and show concern and sensitivity towards the developing markets with slow internet speed.