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Journalism of Courage
Amidst all the excitement about the advent of 4G in India is the stark fact that almost 80 per cent of the country is still on 2G. And even those who have 3G connections ended being on 2G when on the move. This is where Facebook Lite comes in. The new low data usage, easy to load version of the Facebook app is now available for download on the Google Play store and has already clocked over a million downloads.
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“That is when we decided to work on a new app from the ground up to get over these challenges and barriers to offer a good experience for these users,” he says, adding that his team started working on the app about nine months ago with ground testing starting this January.
“It was a big decision on our part to do a lite app as it would mean maining two different apps,” Shankar said, adding that so far the response has been positive showing there was clearly a demand for something like this. The app is now live in Google Play stores in a bunch of South East Asian and African countries.
Despite being a much lighter version that loads without lag on 2G networks, Facebook Lite will offer almost all the services of the full app. Only video and location service have been stripped of the app, as Shankar said they were still working on perfecting these experiences. On the other hand, the Messenger has been integrated into the app. Users will be able to run both apps on the same device if needed. “Most people wouldn’t miss a thing,” he said.
“We are filling up a hole that existed in the market, but we are not forcing anyone to adopt the new app. Facebook is just offering them a choice now,” he said.
