Growing social media giant Instagram has without warning rolled out a lite version of its popular app onto the Mexican Google Play store.

The regular Instagram app clocks in at 34MB in the UK, but the Lite version is tiny in comparison at just under half a meg. It’s not uncommon for app makers to release smaller, lighter versions of their apps for emerging markets. Facebook Lite, for instance, was released in 2015 and currently boasts 100+ million active monthly users.

Indeed, a spokesperson confirmed to Variety that the company is “testing a new version of Instagram for Android that takes up less space on your device, uses less data, and starts faster”. It’s not known whether it serves the same ads as the full app.

Emerging markets

Features-wise it’s fairly full, however, offering access to the Instagram feed, stories, filters and the explore tab. Messaging functionality is not present right now but is apparently coming. Not included is access to Instagram’s new IGTV video feature, however.

The Google Play description reads: "The Instagram Lite app is small, allowing you to save space on your phone and download it quickly... Join the community of over one billion people and express yourself by sharing all the moments of your day – the highlights and everything in between, too."

The app is compatible with Android 5.0 Lollipop and above.

Growth

Yesterday we reported that Android-owning US social media users in June spent almost as much time using Instagram as they did Facebook, according to SimilarWeb data.

An average of 53 minutes per day was spent on the app in June 2018 – that’s just five minutes shy of the 58 minutes clocked on Facebook. It’s also ahead of the 49.5 minutes spent using Snapchat.

Furthermore, Instagram growth began tracking ahead of Facebook in October 2017 and could surpass its parent service by the end of the year. Instagram overtook Snapchat in January and has in the last two months started to extend its lead over its ailing rival.