Spotify is launching the lighter version of its Android app today — dubbed Spotify Lite — that’s designed for people with smaller data plans and older devices. The 10MB app (the main Spotify app can require 100MB) ships with one major new feature: the ability to set a data limit and receive a notification when it’s reached, a necessity for people mindful of their data usage.
Using Spotify Lite, listeners can also control their song cache and clear it with a tap, if storage is an issue. The app is available in 36 markets around Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa through Google Play and will work on any device running Android version 4.3 and higher. It offers the same experience as the usual Spotify app, but is optimized for slower connections and those with less data-intensive cell plans.
Apart from the data feature addition, the only other main difference between standard Spotify and its Lite variant appears to be a design change: users’ libraries on Lite are replaced with favorites, which is where all saved songs and playlists live. Spotify says the app is meant to complement the main Spotify app and that people should select “whichever suits [them] best.”
Spotify is one of multiple major tech companies to introduce a lite app. Facebook, for instance, launched Facebook Lite, Messenger Lite, and Instagram Lite. Uber also launched its own Lite version. These Lite apps are becoming more popular and critical as tech companies look to expand to developing countries where data connections are slower and data itself is more precious and expensive.
