Hi Guys
Today, we will experience a new app Facebook Lite, the latest app brought to you by Facebook Inc.
What is Facebook?
In case, you are a newbie. Facebook is an online social networking service headquartered in Menlo Park, California. Its website was launched on February 4, 2004, by Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommates and fellow Harvard students Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum,Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes.
Read how to Make the world a better place via Facebook.
What is Facebook Lite?
As the name suggests, Facebook’s new app is a Lite version of the former app with some of the features disappeared, but faster, smaller and lighter in terms of data consumption.
It is made to work in the low network coverage areas across the developing countries of Asia and will also be launched in parts of Latin America, Africa and Europe over the next couple of weeks.
Read more about Google's response on this in form of Google Search Lite.
Why Facebook Lite?
This app is designed to encourage users in the developing countries where mobile data services are limited as compared to the developed countries.
“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,” Vijay Shankar, Product Manager for Facebook Lite, wrote in a blog post.
Read Mark Zuckerberg’s views on Facebook Lite in his post yesterday.
How to get Facebook Lite?
Facebook Lite is currently launched for Android Devices only. You can download it via the following Google Play Store link.
For them, in whose country, the app isn’t officially launched yet, can download Facebook Lite from this Google Drive link.
Differences between Facebook and Facebook Lite
| Facebook Lite | ||
|---|---|---|
| Size | The size of the original Facebook app varies greatly with devices. But is remains mostly around 27 MB. | The size is greatly reduced. The app only takes about 436 KB of space. For comparison 436 KB = 0.4 MB |
| Data Consumption | The former app showcased an image rich News Feed as well as Auto – Playing videos; which obviously consumed a lot of data. | Facebook Lite, doesn’t allow users to watch a video. It also compresses images and with many other such techniques, it saves a lot of data. It uses less than a quarter of data as compared to the official Facebook App. |
| Features | Along with all the features of Facebook Lite. It also features, Saved, Instagram Link, On This Day, Create Groups, Suggest Edits, Help Center, Activity Log, Privacy Shortcuts, Code Generator, Account Settings, Like Pages, Beta Program (Android), Games etc. | Other than browsing profiles and like, share, and comment which are the meaning of Facebook. It features Chat, Photos, Search, Friend, Settings, News Feed, Messages, Notifications, Friend Requests, Pages, Groups, Events, Most Recent, Internet.org Link, Help, and About. |
| Platform Supported with Download Links | Web, Android Devices, iOS Devices, Windows Phone, and Windows 8. | It is currently launched for Android Devices only. For them, in whose country, the app isn’t launched yet, can download from this Google Drive link. |
| Messenger | On certain platforms, Messenger is required for chatting with friends for e.g. iOS Devices. Messenger is available on Web, Android Devices, iOS Devices, and Windows Phone. | Messenger is in-built in the Facebook Lite App. |
Personal review for FB Lite
Personally, I used it on Abdul’s Micromax Canvas 2 Plus. I will like to mention a few points about Facebook Lite –
- After installation, on its first turn, it took about whopping 17.26 seconds to initialize its first run. It ruined its first impression and my expectations about that app. But on second run, it became faster with no more than 2 seconds.
- It is best to work with 2G internet network though.
- At first, I expected that it will adapt to the internet speed. But it didn’t; that is when I tried it on a WiFi network, it still displayed compressed images instead of HD.
- As already said, if you are using Facebook Lite, forget about Videos, or Games.
- At less than a MB in size, its worth a try, at least to experience a new data saving Facebook.
Thank you Canadian bot.
They need to add code generator to fb lite. Like seriously