The Growing Trend of Apps with ‘Lite’ Alternatives
K. Q. Dreger notices a peculiar trend in apps by large companies and writes that a company’s ‘Lite’ app should be their only app:
What part of being fast, data conscious, and reliable is exclusive to old devices or those on poor networks? Why does Twitter Lite feel more like Twitter than anything the company’s done with their main website or app over the past few years? Are Facebook, Twitter, and Google truly so married to ads, analytics, and A/B testing frameworks that their only shot at making a reasonably sized, fast app is to start fresh? Will these lite variants actually stay that way, or will the bloat slowly creep back in?
Being based in India, I have used some of these ‘Lite’ apps over the last few months and in almost all the cases, these lite versions offer a far better user experience than using the official apps. It’s downright ridiculous to experience how bloated the official apps are with unnecessary crap.
It’s also sad to see that there are many apps out there which are severely bloated and do not offer a lite version at all. This issue is becoming more common across not just iOS and Android, but on the Mac as well, thanks to all the “apps” powered by Electron.