Twitter rolls out data-friendly 'Lite' version of its mobile app for Android in 24 countries

After a successful trial in the Philippines, Twitter is rolling out its data-friendly “Lite” Android version in 24 countries across Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America. [caption id=“attachment_4236597” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Twitter Lite[/caption] Available in Google Play Store, Twitter “Lite” (under 3MB size) loads quickly on 2G and 3G networks and offers offline support in case users temporarily lose connection. Just like Facebook ‘Lite,’ it offers a data saver mode to download only the images or videos users want to see. “In April, we launched Twitter ‘Lite’, a new mobile web experience that minimises data usage, loads quicker on slower connections, and is more resilient on unreliable mobile networks,” wrote Jesar Shah, Product Manager at Twitter, in a blog post on 1 December. “Since then we’ve seen an increase in engagement — for example, tweets sent from Twitter Lite have increased more than 50 percent,” she added. In September, Twitter made it available in the Google Play Store in the Philippines. “Through on-the-ground user research and Play Store reviews, we received a lot of valuable feedback. Based on these positive results, we have decided to bring it to more people around the world,” Shah said. Twitter ‘Lite’ is now available in Algeria, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Egypt, Israel, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Malaysia, Nigeria, Nepal, Panama, Peru, Serbia, El Salvador, South Africa, Thailand, Tunisia, Tanzania and Venezuela. Twitter ‘Lite’ is yet to come to India. The company has 330 million monthly active users, 80 percent of whom are outside the US.