The trade off? Facebook Lite - which is advertised as less than 1MB (252KB), but actually took up 1.16MB after installation - requests a fair amount of permissions from your Android device, similar to the full fledged 114MB (after installation) regular version of the app (only without the location data). There’s no videos (like, at all) and unlike opening Facebook in your phone’s web browser, Facebook Lite will provide you with push notifications on your Android device, handy if you’re waiting for an important message and want to keep up with friends without having to refresh the browser.
Soon after installation, our optimism was met with cold hard reality - this app was little more than a wrapper for the mobile web view (ie, it’s nearly identical to visiting m.). Aimed at low-end devices in emerging markets where cellular data is a little slower, we have to admit, we were plenty excited at the prospect of a 2G-friendly version of the normally bloated Facebook app. Early this morning, Facebook uploaded a new, slimmed down version of their app dubbed Facebook Lite to the Google Play Store.
