Twitter Lite, the micro-blogging platform’s data-friendly Android app, is now available in more than 45 countries. After rolling it out in 24 countries in December 2017, the social media giant has now launched Twitter Lite in 21 more countries, including India.
The app can be downloaded from Google Play Store. It is currently compatible with devices supporting Android versions 5.0 and above.
Twitter Lite is built for 2G and 3G networks, and hence will benefit a lot of users in India as many parts of the country still use 2G and 3G networks. With an install size of 3MB, Twitter Lite saves data and space, also also loads fast on slow networks.
“While using the app on 2G or 3G, you’ll notice that content will load quickly on Twitter Lite. We want to make sure you can see what’s happening no matter what network you’re on,” Twitter said in a statement late on Monday.
Latest Twitter features such as night mode, improved notifications, real time updates, Bookmarks, 280 characters etc can be enjoyed on the Lite version too.
“With Twitter Lite, you can get real-time updates on news, sports, entertainment, politics, and other topics that matter most to you, without having to sacrifice on data or storage,” said the statement posted by Jesar Shah, product manager at Twitter.
Here is what Twitter Lite offers
Saves data: The company says Twitter Lite will made sure the platform is accessible to people with data, bandwidth, and device constraints. You can enable Data saver to control which images and videos you want to load on your device. You will have “Load image” or “Load video” option to download any content at any time, which will help you save data in real time.
Built for 2G and 3G networks: As mentioned above, Twitter Lite comes with an install size of 3MB. It loads fast no matter what network you’re on, claims Twitter.
Bookmarks: In case you are running low on data, Twitter Lite gives you the option to save a Tweet for later. Using the Bookmarks feature, you can save important Tweets for later when you have a better internet connection or more data.
Push notifications: Like the main Twitter app, Twitter Lite also supports push notifications now, updating you with what’s happening around the world.
Night mode: Night mode has been introduced to Twitter Lite. It gives a darker easier-on-the-eyes theme to the timeline.
Threads: Threaded tweets are now available on Lite. A plus button added in the composer window allows a user to create a thread to keep and publish related tweets together.
In December 2017, Twitter rolled out the data-friendly Android app in 24 countries after a successful trial in the Philippines. These 24 countries were Algeria, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Israel, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Nepal, Nigeria, Panama, Peru, Serbia, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia and Venezuela.
Apart from India, the app is now available in Argentina, Belarus, Dominican Republic, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Morocco, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Romania, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, Uruguay, Yemen, and Zimbabwe.