Taking account of the world’s many mobile devices that are too technologically primitive to effectively run Twitter’s main apps, the micro-blogging site has just unveiled Twitter Lite.
On its blog, Twitter announced that this app is rolling out from today. Built for use through web browsers, this “new mobile web experience”, as Twitter calls it, is essentially a more rudimentary version of the network with which we are all familiar.
Twitter Lite is designed for easy use through smartphones limited to sluggish 2G networks, which 45% of mobile connections still use, says GSMA Intelligence. The app is up to 30% quicker to launch and under 1MB in size, making it also suitable for mobile devices lacking storage space.
Twitter Lite, which will be available globally through mobile.twitter.com, still integrates an array of the social network’s key features – including the timeline, Tweets, profiles, notifications and media uploads. Its offline support also enables it to be used when the mobile connection has been lost.
The social media company particularly recommends Twitter Lite for “emerging markets” in Latin America, Asia Pacific and Africa; indeed, it is well-suited wherever cellular data plans are relatively expensive. Twitter adds that it is currently working to bring “exciting updates” to Twitter Lite.