If you’re a Twitter user on the iPhone or iPad, and on a restricted or low data plan, then you’ll be pleased to hear that the social network has launched a new iOS app that streamlines the whole experience.
But take note, this isn’t an app you’ll find in Apple’s App Store. This is a newer approach known as a Progressive Web App.
Basically, it runs via Apple’s Safari web browser (and others) and only takes up 1MB of storage space. To put that in context, the Twitter iOS app takes up a surprisingly beefy 196MB.
So, how does it work? Firstly, it strips out a lot of the menus familiar to desktop users, but also removes a lot of the features present in the iOS app. For those that just want to read the tweets from those they follow, it’s great.
There are further data and space saving options too. The settings allow you to turn off image previews to save data. Elsewhere, Twitter claims the web app is more resilient on unreliable mobile networks, and also offers an offline mode.
You can still access your Direct Messages, profiles of other users, and trending tweets. Although it works across the world, it’s clear that Twitter has focused this on emerging markets where connections are unstable. However, there are plenty of people the world over that frequently struggle to stay within their data limits.
How to access Twitter Lite
To access Twitter Lite, open up Safari and head to mobile.twitter.com.
Remember – you can set any webpage as a Home screen icon. Doing so will add the page to your Home screen so you can access Twitter Lite just like any other app.
To do so, open up Safari and head to the Twitter Lite page, tap the share icon in the middle of the bottom menu, then tap the icon ‘Add to Home Screen.’ That’s it! You’ll find it on your Home Screen.
If you’d prefer to try out Twitter using the official iOS app, it can be downloaded for free on the App Store.
Guide: Getting started with Twitter on iOS