With little warning, Facebook just recently released a new app, Facebook Lite, designed to take up a minimal amount of storage space. So what does this new offering hope to accomplish, and how does it tie in with Facebook’s other projects?

Facebook Lite has currently been designed for Android, and as the name suggests, offers a scaled down version of its original app- perfect for those on a 2G connection. Last week, the company released this to eight countries: Bangladesh, Nepal, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Zimbabwe- countries where a greater number of people have basic mobile devices. In comparison to the 27MB of space needed for Facebook’s full app, Lite only requires 1MB. The app offers a “no-frills” approach, but users are still able to send and receive messages with friends, have group conversations, see notifications, view friends posts, and share their own written updates and photos.

It seems that Facebook’s new creation ties in nicely with its master project, Internet.org, which is about creating global connectivity. The company’s acquisition of WhatsApp last year for instance, was no doubt a part of this plan as well, with Facebook exploring the area of free-for-all communication. With the app’s popularity surging in developing countries across South America, Africa and Indonesia, there’s a huge opportunity to continually make the Internet accessible to the 4-5 billion people not already connected. At the moment, it seems that mobile is the easiest way for Facebook to enable accessibility- indeed, Mark Zuckerberg announced his concept for “a 911 for the Internet”, with a social networking site such as Facebook, a messaging service and other functions such as search and weather, all part of the free bundle.

And of course, aside from exploring apps and mobile communication, Facebook’s entrance to the drone market is another element of this plan. The company’s Connectivity Lab, (which is responsible for developing ways to make affordable Internet access), turned its attention to satellite technology in 2014, announcing plans to test drones this year. Although the company didn’t purchase drone maker Titan Aerospace as was predicted, it has revealed that it is to create and test thousands of drones in a bid to create connectivity in remote areas. These jumbo jet-like structures will fly approximately 17 miles above the earth, and Facebook hopes that they will be in operation within 3-5 years, providing wireless Internet access to developing countries. We can certainly see that in the meantime, Facebook isn’t just sitting back- with relatively small steps such as Lite, the company is evidently trying to reach a larger audience rapidly, and as best it can.

What are your thoughts on Facebook’s latest app? Do you think it will be popular in emerging markets, or even with those of us who wish to save on storage space? We’d love to hear your opinions, so please tweet to us @PracticeDigital and share your comments on our Facebook page.