Instagram launched its smaller Lite app in 2018 only to remove it from the Play Store in the spring of last year. The application is now being restarted with new features and a slightly larger file size. Instagram announced today that the app will begin launching on Android in 170 countries, including the U.S., through the Play Store, and that the new app requires only two megabytes, compared to the 30 MB of the regular Instagram app. (The original Lite application only required 573 kilobytes, so it is definitely bigger than that.) No version of iOS is planned yet.
However, this larger size allows for new features, including the ability to send direct messages and record and post videos. It also prominently features the Reels tab on the home page while ignoring the shopping guide.
At a briefing, Instagram Lite product manager Nick Brown said the team “has no plans” to bring purchases to Instagram Lite, but that Reels had “a lot of involvement” in India, which is why the team decided to keep this tab in this iteration of the Lite application. (TikTok is currently banned in India and has reduced its staff there, so the Reels had a chance to flourish without the competition.) However, users will not be able to make their own Moments from the app. They also can’t use augmented reality facial filters, although the team is “absolutely” exploring this. Other authoring tools with less data usage, such as stickers, GIFs and text, can still be applied.
For now, the app has no ads, although Brown says The Verge that the team is “committed to offering the full suite of monetization tools”. He and the team want to “make the most of space and time – that everything we launch in Lite can fully support and that it is as good an experience as on normal Instagram”.
Many companies have launched smaller, scaled-down versions of their applications for users around the world who can share phones or use older devices with less storage. Facebook launched its Lite application in 2015, while TikTok launched its version in 2019. For companies that need to be global to grow, a smaller application is a way to attract new users.