Twitter has introduced a new light version of its service that minimises data usage. Twitter Lite is web-based, and has an install size of less than 1MB.
Not too dissimilar to Facebook Lite, Twitter Lite was trialed in the Philippines earlier this year. Now it is available to 24 new countries, which includes Algeria, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Egypt, Israel, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Malaysia, Nigeria, Nepal, Panama, Peru, Serbia, El Salvador, South Africa, Thailand, Tunisia, Tanzania and Venezuela.
Twitter commented that the app will work more resiliently on unreliable mobile networks such as 2G and 3G networks. There is a data saver mode, where users can pick and choose which content they want to download and view on their mobile devices.
Other interesting features includes off-line access for pre-loaded content, push notifications and automatic updates of the app. Plus as Twitter Lite is web-based, any device with a browser can access the service, without installing any apps locally.
Twitter hopes that with the new Lite version, the company can get more people to the platform internationally. Right now it has 330 million active users monthly, with 80% coming outside of the US.
(Source: TechCrunch, Twitter)
