Facebook is bringing back the abandoned Instagram Lite project. The social network announced on Wednesday (16) that it is testing the reboot of Instagram Lite in India, where it hopes to obtain valuable information about the new feature before a global launch.

The revamped Instagram Lite weighs less than 2MB and offers a “fast, reliable and responsive” experience, according to Facebook. The app in India is available in Bangla, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu, however, it lacks Instagram’s core features like Reels, Shopping and IGTV.

Facebook quietly shut down Instagram Lite earlier this year. In July, Vishal Shah, Instagram's vice president of product, told TechCrunch that the company had identified some issues with the app and was working to fix them. 

Lite apps are very popular in emerging markets, where most users don’t have access to high-end smartphones or cheap, fast mobile data. Facebook Lite, for example, had about 40 million monthly active users in India last month, while Messenger Lite had about 13 million, according to mobile insights firm App Annie. 

Emerging market

O announcement about the new Instagram Small took place at the Facebook Fuel for India event, where Facebook executives including Mark Zuckerberg and Ajit Mohan outlined a number of other programs they were working on.

The company also announced the second iteration of Born on Instagram, a year-long program designed for creators to better understand and leverage ways to collaborate with each other and explore monetization opportunities.

At the event, Instagram's India representative Abhijit Bose said the company was working to launch a health insurance offering for WhatsApp users in India later this month. In July, WhatsApp revealed it was working to test credit, insurance and pension services in India.

“WhatsApp has been proactively working on several pilots to help ensure that every person has access to the most basic essential financial and livelihood services through their mobile devices. By the end of this year, we hope that people will be able to buy affordable sachet-sized health insurance through WhatsApp,” Bose said today. 

O Facebook identifies India as its largest market by users, and is also working with telecom company Jio Platforms to help small businesses establish an online presence and sell digitally.

With TechCrunch