Twitter has launched a new app aimed at persuading more people in more countries to use Twitter. The app, called Twitter Lite, loads faster, takes up less space on your smartphone, and uses less data. All while maintaining Twitter's core functionality.

In 2015, Facebook launched Facebook Lite, a data-saving version of its app. This started a trend for lightweight versions of popular apps. We have since witnessed the arrival of YouTube Go, Messenger Lite, and Skype Lite. And Twitter has now joined the party with Twitter Lite.

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

As Twitter explains in an enlightening blog post, Twitter Lite is "a new mobile web experience which minimizes data usage, loads quickly on slower connections, is resilient on unreliable mobile networks, and takes up less than 1MB on your device." Twitter has also "optimized it for speed, with up to 30% faster launch times as well as quicker navigation throughout Twitter".

Twitter Lite is primarily aimed at users in developing countries, where older phones lacking in storage, slow mobile networks, and spotty internet coverage are the norm. However, it's actually now the default mobile web app for everyone, so you can use Twitter Lite regardless of location.

Twitter Lite is what's called a Progressive Web App (PWA), which means it's somewhere in between an app and a mobile website. This means you can access it through any browser on any device, but if you use Google Chrome on an Android device you'll gain access to additional features such as push notifications.

You can use Twitter Lite right now by visiting mobile.twitter.com, or find out more about it on lite.twitter.com.

Helping Twitter Reach More People

Twitter has been struggling to attract new users for several years now. I've personally tried my best to persuade people to give Twitter a go, but growth has flatlined. This is in stark contrast to Facebook, which has continued to add hundreds of millions of users from all around the world.

Making Twitter accessible to as many people as possible is clearly a good idea, but it remains to be seen whether Twitter Lite will solve Twitter's problems. After all, it does nothing to explain how Twitter works, or prevent harassment. Which are both things keeping people away from Twitter.

Do you use Twitter? If so, what do you like about it? If not, why not? Do you find the whole thing incomprehensible? Or is it just not for you? Do you like the idea of Twitter Lite? Does it make you more likely to start using Twitter? Please let us know in the comments below!

Image Credit: Thethreesisters via Flickr