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Twitter is leaving no stones unturned to reverse its fortune and stagnant user base. Making a move in the same direction, the micro-blogging site has launched a lighter, speedier, and more data-friendly version of Twitter, called Twitter Lite to attract more people in developing markets where internet connections can often be patchy.
The service can only be accessed via a mobile web browser like Google Chrome and takes up less than 1 megabyte on your device. The mobile web app loads up to 30 percent faster on a 3G device than the original mobile site, and Twitter claims it can save up to 70 percent of data. It also offers faster navigation to Twitter features like direct messages and notifications.
Twitter Lite is a faster, data friendly way for people to use Twitter to see what’s happening in the world.
https://t.co/AIUgyCAFj0 pic.twitter.com/9EIG7pgK6O
— Twitter (@Twitter) April 6, 2017
Twitter has been struggling to grow its user base and monetize its platform, and emerging markets like Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Africa hold a lot of potential for the networking site to grow. While mobile users in developed markets have widespread access to fast 4G LTE networks, much of the world still only has access to 2G and 3G wireless service, which is considerably slower. The new version of Twitter is geared towards such areas.
Moreover, the company has introduced a data saver mode, similar to the one in their mobile applications. This further reduces the amount of mobile data used by showing a blurred preview of images and videos in the feed, instead of directly downloading them.
Twitter isn't the first tech company adapting itself to work on slower 3G networks. As the markets in the US and Europe saturate, companies are looking for growth in markets where the wireless infrastructure isn't as developed. Recently, Google launched a beta version of its YouTube Go service in India. And in 2015, Facebook released its own Lite app that provides speedier access on slower networks.