In the tradition of apps releasing lightweight versions of their apps for developing markets, we are suddenly gifted with the appearance of Spotify Lite on the Google Play Store. Obviously, it is not available in all territories for now and is meant for those that may not have fast Internet or majority of users don’t have high-end devices. But unlike the previous lite apps we’ve seen in the market, this one may be too basic, although it is still labeled as in the test phase so we might see some improvements later on.
The Spotify Lite version is, of course, meant to help you save storage space on your device if you don’t have extra space for the full version of the app. However, it looks like they had to make a lot of sacrifices and compromises to be able to do that. At its most basic, it can play random tracks in shuffled order from suggested playlists. You won’t be able to search for particular songs or play entire albums in its proper order, and you won’t have radio or Spotify Connect.
What you have is a glorified radio app where you can just “enjoy playlists made just for you” and not much else. Having the ability to download music for offline playback may save a user’s data but it also would end up defeating the purpose of saving up your storage space. Since there is no official announcement yet and it seems like it’s still in the beta phase, they might still be adding more features once it is launched.
For now, if what you need is just a Spotify that can randomly play music that it assumes you like, you’ll have to make do with the Lite app. You can download it for free from the Google Play Store. It’s not available yet for all territories though, so there’s that.
