Instagram makes money by placing ads in your feed and in your Stories. This is pretty much standard behavior for most free-to-use services, but in case you don’t like ads and don’t want to see them in your Instagram feed, did you know that you can actually view Instagram without any ads?
This is because Instagram has created a “Lite” version of its app for emerging markets. The idea is that the Lite version of Instagram is more data-friendly and also less resource intensive, which also means that Instagram has opted to remove ads from it.
If you’ve checked the Play Store but couldn’t find it, don’t worry you’re not alone. This is because like we said, Instagram Lite isn’t available globally yet and we’re not sure if there are plans to release it for non-emerging markets, but the good news is that you can always download the APK for it.
How To Download And Install Instagram Lite APK
- Go to APK Mirror on your phone and download the latest version listed at the top
- Follow the links on the screen to download the APK
- Tap on “OK” when your browser prompts whether or not you want to download the file
- Open the file once it’s downloaded
- Tap on Install and wait for the app to finish installing
- Launch Instagram Lite
- Log into your Instagram account and you’re good to go
Functionality wise, both apps are more or less the same. You can upload photos, videos, and Stories. However, the main difference would be the app’s size where Instagram Lite is 2MB versus the 30-80MB of Instagram. Also, unlike the regular version of Instagram, the Lite version does not support Live videos, so if that’s important to you then you’ll need to download the regular Instagram.
Instagram Lite has been launched in over 170 countries but it is mostly targeting emerging markets such as India. Instagram/Facebook has not mentioned if there are plans to eventually bring it to the US or to the UK, so for now your best bet is to download the APK and install it manually.
No. At the moment, Instagram Lite is exclusive to Android. There has been no announcement regarding iOS availability so for now, we should just assume that there are no plans to bring it to iOS devices yet. Do note that save for Facebook Lite, the company’s other Lite apps are also unavailable for iOS, so it’s not just Instagram.
Yes and no. This depends on where you download the APK from. Usually more reputable websites like APK Mirror have systems in place to help verify if the files are legit, but you should always practice caution before downloading them. Even bigger companies like Google have accidentally let in malware so no system is perfect.
Filed in . Read more about Android, Apps, Facebook and Instagram.