Facebook Lite – A Smaller And Faster Version Of Facebook For Android

Facebook and Facebook Messenger are incredibly popular Android apps, but they’re also kinda bloated, hogging more CPU cycles, data, and memory than one would like. That’s the reason neither runs very well on low-end Android phones or slow networks. Facebook is aware of this, and is rolling out an optimized Android app called Facebook Lite in emerging markets, where low-end Android phones make up the majority of smartphone market and slow 2G/3G connections are the norm.

Facebook Lite clocks in at under 1MB in size (that’s less than 1/50th the size of Facebook and Messenger combined), consumes very little memory while running, and uses far less data than its bigger siblings. You might think such a tiny app might be devoid of many features, but that’s not the case here. Facebook Lite has surprisingly almost every feature that you get with Facebook, including push notifications. It even has messaging baked right in, unlike the regular Facebook app. Advanced Messenger features like voice and video calls are, however, not available. The UI is a big ugly thanks to severe compression of data, but that’s hardly a deal breaker considering how functional and fast the app is otherwise.

Facebook Lite is gradually rolling out in parts of Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America. If you don’t want to wait, you can just grab the APK installer file from a trusted site (like APK Mirror) and sideload it on your phone.

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