At the "Facebook Fuel For India" event today, Instagram launched Instagram Lite, a no-frills version of its photo and video sharing service. At less than 2MB in size, Instagram Lite is primarily developed for users with limited internet bandwidth and low-memory phones (read Android Go edition phones). However, we believe it will have an equally strong appeal to those who have grown frustrated with the cluttered user experience on the main app as a result of continuous feature downpour over the past months.

Instagram Lite puts emphasis on speed, performance, and responsiveness. The overall experience of the app is similar to that of the full-fledged version, but it removes several key functionalities such as Reels, Shopping, and IGTV to offer users a clean and light experience. Depending on how you value those specific sub-functions, this app could either be a good or a bad thing.

The app is available in multiple regional Indian languages, including Bangla, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu.

With the test of Instagram Lite, and the next edition of Born on Instagram, we’re aiming to democratize expression and creativity for a greater number of people in India. We’re also hoping to gain valuable insights before a global rollout of Instagram Lite.

Instagram Lite is only available in India for the time being, but there are plans to bring it to global markets at a later date. For now, you should be able to sideload it on your Android phone just as you would sideload any other app.

As per the official app listing, the Instagram Lite first became available for download on the Google Play Store on December 9 and already boasts 5 million+ downloads at the time of writing this article. The new Lite app comes after the company shut down the old Lite version earlier this year, which was available in markets like Mexico, Kenya, and the Philippines.