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Twitter Lite launches today, needs less storage space, uses less data

If you like to keep up to date with Twitter but are tight on storage space or want to reduce data usage, the company has a new option as of today. Twitter Lite is what’s known as a Progressive Web App. Running in Safari and other mobile browsers, it’s a client-side JavaScript application that takes up less than 1MB of storage space.

Twitter says that the service also minimizes data usage and is resilient on unreliable and congested mobile networks, also supporting an offline mode. You also have the option of further reducing data usage by only downloading low-res previews of images and videos …

We have added a data saver mode, which further reduces the amount of mobile data used. In this mode, you will see a preview of images and videos before choosing which ones to fully load. This can reduce your data usage by up to 70%, making it more affordable for you to use Twitter in areas where mobile data is expensive.

In this mode, you get a blurred version of images and can tap them to download the full image.

The mobile app supports all the main features of the service, including direct messages, trends and profiles.

Twitter Lite is primarily aimed at emerging markets across Asia, Latin America and Africa, but is available worldwide. It currently supports 42 different languages.

To run the web app, simply visit mobile.twitter.com in Safari.

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Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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