Instagram Lite shuts down in advance of a relaunch

By Muhammad YaseenPublished On 04 Jan 2023

 Instagram Lite, the two-year-old version of the Instagram app aimed at emerging markets, has quietly disappeared. The previously highly ranked app vanished from the Google Play charts on April 13 in the countries where it was active.

Existing Instagram Lite users have been directed to the main Instagram app via a message that claimed "Instagram Lite is No Longer Supported."

"We are rolling back the test of the Instagram Lite app, a Facebook spokesperson said. "You can start using the latest version of Instagram instead to connect with the people and things you love," they noted.

Instagram Lite launched on Google Play in June 2018 without fanfare. Like other "Lite"-branded apps on the market, Instagram Lite’s goal was to offer a smaller download that takes up less space on a mobile device -- a feature that specifically caters to users in emerging markets, where storage space is a concern.

At launch, the "Lite" version of Instagram was 573 kilobytes, or roughly 1/55th the size of Instagram’s then 32-megabyte application.