Lite apps, which are very popular in countries such as ours where users are conscious about the data they use as well as the need to limit resource (space) utilization, can be handy means of a product or service reaching an even bigger user base than it already has access to.
That is not the case for Facebook’s Instagram, at least for now.
Instagram Lite, the multimedia-based social media app’s app meant for low bandwidth usage and minimal resource utilization, has been pulled from the Google Play Store. This has been the case since around mid-April.
According to TechCrunch, this is because Instagram is working on an Instagram Lite replacement that will incorporate all that it has learned over Instagram Lite’s 2-year existence.
For now, though, anyone who relied on Instagram Lite, which should be quite a number of Kenyans, is being advised to download the full Instagram app from the Play Store.
According to Sensor Tower (via TechCrunch), the app consistently ranked among the top free applications in Kenya and, with 12.5% of all of the app’s users, the third-largest market, this is going to be one of the toughest news to wake up to for many Kenyans who get online on a daily basis – especially in these social distancing times.
An alternative is to just use Instagram from the browser.
