If you have decent Internet connection and a relatively new Android device, chances are you have no problems using the Facebook app (well, aside from the usual pitfalls of using the popular social network). But there are still millions of people out there who do not have these “privileges” but would still want to be on Facebook. That’s why they launched Facebook Lite back in 2015, and now two years later, there are over 200M users on this low bandwidth version.
In a post on Facebook (duh), Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg shared that not only are there 200 million users on Facebook Lite, but they are also helping business owners expand their reach, if they themselves do not have access to the regular version of the social networking app. She cited a wedding photographer in Sao Paulo, Brazil who was able to use less data and save money by uploading his photos using Lite. If your line of work involves always being on the go and you get most of your customers on Facebook, then this is pretty important.
Of course Facebook Lite isn’t without its drawbacks. People have been complaining how slow and laggy it is. And some functions that are on the regular app aren’t there, obviously. But it is pretty useful for those who have super slow connection speeds, limited storage space, and older devices. It works on 2G network speeds, weighs only 2MB and can work with devices that have as far back as Android 2.3 Gingerbread.
Sandberg emphasizes that Facebook is “committed to connecting people with the things they care about.” Say what you will about the social network (and we all have something to say about it), but you can see that Mark Zuckerberg and company are finding ways to get the rest of the world connected, since we’re a global village after all.
SOURCE: Facebook
