Twitter Lite gains new features and is now available in more places than ever
Social networks have done a pretty good job of reaching saturation point in the US and Europe, which is why the next stage is getting on the phones of the six billion who don’t live there.
And just as Facebook sees the best way of doing this is through its Free Basics software and Lite apps, Twitter has also been working on a cut-down version for regions where devices tend to be more basic and data comes at a premium.
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Today, Twitter has announced that the lite version of its app is available in an additional 21 countries: Argentina, Belarus, Dominican Republic, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Morocco, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Romania, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, Uruguay, Yemen, and Zimbabwe.
That means that the app is now available in 46 countries overall, having launched last year in 25 countries across Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.
But the 21 new countries won’t be getting the same version the launch countries recieved, and the app is getting a bunch of new features to bring it a little closer to the full Twitter experience – or at least to the full experience Twitter offered back in its early days.
Push notifications are here, as is the ability to bookmark tweets and thread conversations.
Its main selling point, of course, remains in the name: it’s light. Not only is the whole app a teeny-tiny 3MB download, but it has a mode called Data Saver that ensures you’re not downloading unnecessary extras like pictures and video unless you explicitly tell it to.
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Which actually sounds pretty tempting for US and UK audiences fed up of feature creep, but don’t expect a release here anytime soon. For Twitter, the richer the ad experience it can deliver to you, the more valuable you are as a member.
And as the old adage says: if you’re not paying for the product, you are the product.
Would you download Twitter Lite if you could? Let us know on – appropriately enough – Twitter @TrustedReviews.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
