Starting today, people in more than 170 countries will be able to download Instagram Lite in the Google Play Store to have a high-quality Instagram experience, no matter what network or device they’re on. The new product will also be rolling out globally soon according to the parent company, Facebook.
The new app for Android is designed to provide people living in rural and remote communities with a high-quality Instagram experience using minimal data.
During the past year, Instagram has become a lifeline for many to connect with loved ones or find a small moment of inspiration, be it a photo of a friend’s newborn or a video of puppies discovering snow.
Yet for millions of people, accessing these daily doses of connection and entertainment is not so simple. Slightly more than 63% of the world’s population is online, as opposed to nearly 90% in North America. And many of the regions that are connected do not possess the most up-to-date mobile devices, robust internet networks, or affordable data plans needed for the swift delivery of the data-rich videos and images found on Instagram.
For instance, only around 50% of households in India have access to the internet. “No matter where they are, people want to be entertained and inspired by those that they love,” says Lourie Michelle, Product Manager, Facebook. “It’s difficult to do that on Instagram with an entry-level phone that has storage constraints.”
“Our teams build these lightweight versions of our apps for people with low connectivity or limited data plans because our basic premise is to leave no one behind,” adds Tzach Hadar, Director of Product Management at Facebook Tel Aviv, one of the largest strategic engineering hubs for Facebook globally. “We wanted the Instagram experience to remain fast, high-quality, and reliable, irrespective of the device, platform, and network people are on.”
The Instagram Lite is an app that requires only 2 MB to download on Android — considerably less than the full-size version, which was closer to 30 MB — but retains the key features that people using entry-level devices want. To keep those features on the smaller app, the team took a page from Facebook Lite, another Tel Aviv creation that debuted a few years ago, by offloading into the cloud much of the code from the app running on the phone.
The team then focused on what people valued most, namely video and messaging, which remote dwellers use more actively than their urban counterparts. Both posed a tightrope walk for engineers. While the team wanted to preserve the beauty and craft of Instagram’s design, they also had to remain mindful of how the app would perform in a setting with poor connectivity and slower networks. “Instant feedback is very important for anyone with ongoing network problems,” says Lourie. “If you have to wait for some animation to upload, it’s unclear to a person if something went wrong or if the feature is just not working.”
To keep performance reliable, the team removed much of the ornate, data-rich animation, such as cube transitions and the AR filters people can apply to faces. However, they kept features that could deliver joy with less data, like GIFs and stickers. They also got rid of certain icons that do not make sense to new digital users. For instance, a trash can icon did not resonate as a symbol for getting rid of something, but an “X” rang clear.
Even after rolling out Instagram Lite during testing, the team discovered there were other features on people’s must-have list. For instance, multiple people requested a “dark mode” option, which replaces the bright white background with a black one and gray text. “For people who live in communal areas and close quarters, it’s really important to browse more privately and not bother those around them,” explains Lourie.
The attention paid to consumer’s needs paid off as notes began to pour in from people around the world after Instagram Lite was introduced. One person from Venezuela wrote “I am from Venezuela, and some will understand that it is not easy to have a new smartphone. Adding: “I have a Samsung [Galaxy S] Duos with several old apps, but thanks to this application I can have a window to a better world.”
