Amazon now has quietly launched a lite web browser app for Android devices in India. The app called “Internet:: fast, lite and private” on Google Play is visible but not necessarily downloadable depending on your device. The browser has been sitting on the Google Play app store since March and has fewer than 1,000 downloads, according to data from app store intelligence firm Sensor Tower. The app is currently available to users located in India users only and is compatible with devices running Android 5.0 Marshmallow and above. Like most lite apps the app is designed to consume less space on the device. It comes at 2MB in size and Amazon promises it to be “lighter than the competition”. That’s surely smaller than other browsers, including Chrome (21MB), Edge (54.5MB), Firefox (19.9MB) and Opera (14.7MB).
The app itself is a typical web browser that comes with a homepage that shows general news and updates apart from cricket news for its users. The browser app also offers tab previews and enables an automatic fullscreen mode.
Besides, the app supports private tabs that allow users to hide their browser history in their devices. Amazon’s Internet app also promises privacy by not collecting private data or asking for unnecessary permissions from you on your phone.
Notably, the Internet Lite web browser app isn't the only “lite” app from Amazon. The company also released Amazon Kindle Lite, a basic e-book reading app which once again comes under 2MB of file size. In addition, it is designed to work with slower data speeds and in areas with unstable data connectivity.
Similar to Amazon’s efforts, Google and Facebook have also rolled out a suite of lightweight apps for emerging markets like India. Google launched its lite apps under the Go suite of apps which include the Google Go, Google Maps, Google Assistant Go, Files Go and YouTube Go which are available on PlayStore for all to download. Facebook also offers Lite versions of its apps, like Facebook Lite and Messenger Lite, to reach users with limited connectivity and access to data.
