Speed up your phone with ‘lite’ versions of apps

Lightweight apps help you accelerate your phone! Blurry apps can slow down your smartphone, causing menus to load slowly and conversations to appear. Solution: Replace your commonly used applications with a lightweight version.

Many companies have developed "lite versions" of applications, mainly aimed at users in developing countries with unstable network connections and slower equipment operation. However, with a little trick, anyone can install these thin versions of the app. While you may miss some features—for example, Facebook Messenger Lite doesn’t have video calling capabilities—you get a faster and smoother user experience.

Unfortunately, the streamlined app is only available for Android devices and is not available to iOS users. If your iPhone is running extremely slowly, you can try replacing a larger-sized app with mobile sites for these services. (We will introduce how to do it at the end of this article.)

Continue reading to learn about the steps to install the Lite app, and five Lite apps worth trying.

How to install these apps

In some cases, you can install these apps directly from Google Play as usual. However, some streamlined apps are not available for download outside of target countries such as India. To solve this problem, you need to install the application through a simple process called sideloading.

If you are running a version before Android 8.0 Oreo, the first step is to access the settings app. Click Safe, and then switch Unknown Source to on. This allows you to install apps from outside the Google Play Store. Generally speaking, downloading external apps can compromise your phone’s security, but if you plan to install trusted apps from reliable sources (as in this guide) your device will be completely safe.

In Android Oreo, engineers removed this setting. Instead, whenever you try to install an app from a non-Google Play source, you get an app-by-app warning. When the warning appears on the screen, click

Set and then switch the from this source to on .

When you enable external applications, open your mobile browser and load a safe and reliable Android application package (APK) file repository. We recommend APKMirror. Find the file of the app you want and make sure it is the latest version. Finally, download and run it.

Twitter Lite

With Twitter Lite, you can still access your private messages, searches, and notifications as usual. But it removes a lot of visual decor you'll find in the regular Android Twitter app. Additionally, you'll miss out on Highlights and Moments, as well as the option to save tweets as drafts and special night mode skins.

In exchange, you will get a faster experience and the app works better off offline. According to Twitter, this version loads 30% faster than the regular version, while taking up less storage and phone memory. Moreover, the streamlined app caches more timeline content than the full app, making offline browsing easier.

If you want to further increase your phone speed, Twitter Lite also provides a special traffic-saving mode. When you access settings and enable this mode, the app will stop loading videos and images unless you click on them specifically.

Download Twitter Lite from APKMirror.

Facebook Lite

Facebook Lite doesn't remove too many features—you can still get news feeds, notifications, and status updates—but the interface is simplified and streamlined. The main difference you will notice is the visual appearance: the menu and status bar don't always appear on the screen, you have to click on certain options instead of sliding them.

Therefore, the streamlined application takes up less space in the storage space and memory of the phone. It compresses data (especially images) before it reaches your phone, so it can run faster on slower connections.

Unlike regular Facebook applications, the streamlined version includes Messenger. However, you can also download a separate Messenger Lite app. We will provide more information in the next section.

Download Facebook Lite from APKMirror.

Facebook Messenger Lite

In addition to the Facebook Lite app we discussed above, Facebook has released a streamlined version of its Messenger service. Facebook Messenger Lite provides the main features of most larger applications, including text chat, sharing photos, emojis, and more. However, you will miss features such as video calls, sharing your location in conversations, and playing games.

Nevertheless, you might think the tradeoff between application size and memory footprint is worth it. Additionally, the streamlined interface loads faster, although it looks rougher and less smoother than the interfaces that are standard applications.

Download Facebook Messenger Lite from Google Play.

Skype Lite

Everyone needs to stay in touch—even if the internet connection is slow or intermittent. Microsoft has released Skype Lite for people without extensive fiber and LTE networks, targeting mobile phone users in India. If you download it yourself, you can still do audio and video calls as well as text-based messaging, but you will lose the new Highlights feature (let you share your moments of the day) and you will not be able to broadcast your location or in Your message contains animations and GIFs.

Behind the scenes, Skype Lite compresses more data to improve connection speed. If you only need the basic features of Skype – calls and instant messaging – and you can accept a cleaner, less modern interface, then try Skype Lite.

Download Skype Lite from Google Play.

Instagram Lite

As we mentioned earlier, both Twitter and Facebook have lightweight mobile sites that you can use as alternatives to official apps. The same goes for Instagram. While it doesn't have a streamlined app you can download, you can access the service by using a mobile web browser, thus removing unnecessary data consumption.

Instagram's mobile website has recently added the ability to upload photos directly to the website from your phone or from your camera. This makes it almost as complete as it is in practice. You can like posts, add comments, search the web, and even watch Instagram Stories posted by your contacts. However, you will lose some features such as the direct message function and the ability to post video clips. You won't be able to use advanced editing tools either: While you can apply filters to your images, you can't adjust filter intensity or color and brightness settings like you did in the main app.

Access Instagram Lite through your mobile web browser.

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