NEWS
NEWS
NEWS
Facebook launches low resource ‘Facebook Lite’ app in Asia
Facebook has announced the launch of Facebook Lite, a new Android-only app for Asian markets that pares down the social network’s features so that it can run on older phones and slower networks.
“More than a billion people around the world access Facebook from a range of mobile devices on varying networks,” Vijay Shankar, Product Manager for Facebook Lite, wrote on the official Facebook blog. “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.”
The new app requires less than 1MB for installation, ensuring that the download will be quick and even the lowest memory phones can handle it.
The market targeted by Facebook Lite appears to be similar to the one targeted by Facebook’s internet connectivity project, Internet.org. The Internet.org app is also designed to work on older phones in areas without reliable highspeed connections, but its Facebook app does not support photos or video.
Facebook Lite, on the other hand, supports “Facebook’s core experiences like News Feed, status updates, photos, notifications and more.”
An early version of Facebook Lite launched in eight developing nations earlier this year, including Bangladesh, Nepal, Nigeria, and others.
How Facebook Lite could improve the core app
While Facebook Lite will make it easier for people in emerging markets to use the social network, it could also free the core Facebook app from the constraints of low resource systems. After a trip to Africa in 2014, Facebook’s Alex Sourov wrote, “The lessons learned have already impacted the development of new features. We test all major features and changes in poor networking scenarios.”
By creating Facebook Lite as a separate app, the social network can develop new features for the core app without being as concerned about their impact on users in “poor networking scenarios.”
Facebook Lite is now available throughout Asia, and the app will be rolled out in the next few months to other markets in parts of Latin America, Africa and Europe.
Image credit: Facebook Inc (c)
A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:
Support our mission to keep content open and free by engaging with theCUBE community. Join theCUBE’s Alumni Trust Network, where technology leaders connect, share intelligence and create opportunities.
- 15M+ viewers of theCUBE videos, powering conversations across AI, cloud, cybersecurity and more
- 11.4k+ theCUBE alumni — Connect with more than 11,400 tech and business leaders shaping the future through a unique trusted-based network.
About SiliconANGLE Media
SiliconANGLE Media is a recognized leader in digital media innovation, uniting breakthrough technology, strategic insights and real-time audience engagement. As the parent company of SiliconANGLE, theCUBE Network, theCUBE Research, CUBE365, theCUBE AI and theCUBE SuperStudios — with flagship locations in Silicon Valley and the New York Stock Exchange — SiliconANGLE Media operates at the intersection of media, technology and AI.
Founded by tech visionaries John Furrier and Dave Vellante, SiliconANGLE Media has built a dynamic ecosystem of industry-leading digital media brands that reach 15+ million elite tech professionals. Our new proprietary theCUBE AI Video Cloud is breaking ground in audience interaction, leveraging theCUBEai.com neural network to help technology companies make data-driven decisions and stay at the forefront of industry conversations.
