All the lightweight apps in one place

Weighing roughly 1.5MB, Facebook Lite eschews animations and visual flourishes for a simple UI that won’t tax low-end devices. It’s got everything from your news feed and photo uploads to event functionality and business information, just like the standard app. You can even access your messenger inbox without downloading the separate app.

Facebook Lite has a couple of limitations, like its lack of calls. That’s where Messenger Lite comes in. The app supports audio and video calls with your Facebook contacts, and strips out complex UI stylings in favor of a lightweight UI and an ~8MB install size. Don’t expect games or great GIF support, but most of the other essentials are here.

The Instagram Lite app was only a matter of time, following the success of Facebook’s other lightweight apps. The core functionality is mostly here too, allowing you to upload photos, browse your timeline or explore tab, check out stories, and comment on uploads. However, you can’t share videos (to your timeline or stories) or send direct message.

Originally launched for the Indian market, Skype Lite is a slightly streamlined version of the original Skype Android app. Users get a data-saving mode, data tracking, Indian-specific bots and SMS insights (using machine learning to quickly categorize text messages). If the main Skype app is too bloated for your liking, this is worth a look.

Strip Google Maps down and you’ve got the idea behind Google Maps Go. It’s a progressive web app, so you can also access it via your web browser. The app delivers traffic info, business listings, and public transport schedules. The two biggest downsides are the lack of map downloads and turn-by-turn navigation, though you can enable the latter with the Navigation for Google Maps Go app.

Google Assistant Go only weighs in at 4.6MB, but it packs a fair amount of functionality nonetheless. The app lets you make phone calls, send text messages, get weather forecasts, and navigate, among other commands. However, it lacks a few features like reminders and smart home functionality.

Google clearly has no shortage of Android Go apps at its disposal, delivering Gmail Go back in February. The app weighs in at just under 10MB, compared to the more than 20MB size of the Gmail app. Most of the core functionality is still here anyway, so that means multiple accounts, smart replies, and smart email categorization. It also seems to disable image loading by default to save data and storage space.

One of the more noteworthy Android Go apps right now, YouTube Go offers a number of mindful tweaks to conserve your data and run well. It allows you to choose stream or download quality, which gives you the video size in the process, among other things. One of the coolest features has to be the ability to share downloaded videos via a local connection, no data needed.

Twitter Lite is yet another progressive web app. It’s accessible via your browser and takes up just 730KB on my device. Nevertheless, it also offers a data saver mode, so you can tap to load images instead of downloading all images on your timeline. Smart stuff, even if it’s just a step above a mobile website.

One of the newest Lite apps on the list, Uber Lite is another app originally designed for the Indian market. Uber claims the app works fine on 2G internet connections, which is a seriously bold claim. Nevertheless, the lightweight app doesn’t show maps by default, instead relying on a progress bar to track your journey. The app also caches the top places in your city so you can quickly get suggested pickup and dropoff points.