These days, it seems like we have an app for everything. With this, we are bound to download way more applications that we did a couple of years back. You can always delete some of the apps you are not using but in some cases you need almost all the apps on your phone and uninstalling the ones you use on a regular basis is not an option.
Even though there are smartphones with up to 512GB of internal storage space, not everyone is willing or able to afford such. When it comes to smartphones, the bigger the internal storage space, the expensive the phone is. For example, if we look at the new Samsung Galaxy S10 series, the one with 128GB of internal storage space is available on Masoko (on pre-order) for Ksh 109,000 while the one with 512GB of internal storage space is available for Ksh 132,000 on the same e-commerce site.
The example above is not just limited to high end devices, the same is seen with entry level phone, you pay more to get a phone with bigger space. This gets tricky for those who do not have a lot of money to spend on a single device but still want to install some of the apps they use on a regular basis. Of course, you can use a microSD card to help with this but not everyone is willing to go this route, what if you lose your microSD card? What if the card is corrupted?
Saving Space using Lite Apps
If you are always getting the warning that you are running low on storage after installing a few apps, you may want to check out some Lite versions of the apps you use on a regular basis. Lite apps are alternatives to some of the apps available on the Google Play Store or Apple App Store. They are made by the same developers so you are not using a third party app designed by an unknown developer. For example, the Facebook Lite app is designed by Facebook from the ground app for those who want to keep using Facebook but do not want the official Facebook App (for iOS or Android) that takes up so much space on their phones are uses so much of their mobile data. Yes, data costs have been dropping the last few years but that does not mean we should not be careful on how we spend the data we have.
This is the story behind most other Lite apps. They are made for those who want to keep using the popular apps/services but have limited space on their phones and/or do not want apps that will end up using most of their data. If you have used any of the popular apps such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube etc, then you know that they are data hungry and may use all your mobile data without you even knowing.
Some of the popular Lite apps you can download right now include:
- Gmail Go, Google Go, Maps Go, Files Go
- Facebook Lite, Messenger Lite
- Instagram Lite
- Twitter Lite
- Uber Lite
- Skype Lite
- LinkedIn Lite
Google was one of the first companies to come up with Lite apps that it called Go applications. These apps were specifically made for smartphones running Android Go Edition, a tweaked version of Android meant to provide a smooth experience for entry level devices with basic hardware specifications. We do have a number of these phones in Kenya including the Safaricom Neon Kicka 4 that you can get in Kenya for as low as Ksh 3,500.
Now Read: Five Android Go Smartphones That You Can Get in Kenya
Nendo, Nairobi-based digital consultancy highlighted some of the popular Lite apps showing how much space you can actually save by using these apps as opposed to their full-featured counterparts. Below is a look at the comparison.
As you can see above, you can save so much space on your phone by just downloading Lite apps. From the stats shared above, let say you have bought the 1GB Daily Giga Bundle (for Ksh 99) from Safaricom, on iOS, you cannot download all the apps listed above as you will run out of data. On Android, you will be able to download all the apps and if you decide to go with the Lite versions of the app, you will download all the applications and still have enough data left.
Lite Apps Save Data
As I have mentioned above, Lite apps are not just about saving space, they also help you save on data. The reason is, these apps are stripped down versions of the full featured apps you may be using. They rarely have the fancy animations of these apps and may not have all the features of the said apps. With this, you are able to save on data just by using lite app e.g. Facebook Lite over the normal Facebook app. Even with low mobile data costs in Kenya, not everyone is finds them affordable and knowing steps to take to save on data is important.
From the report by Nendo, the average Kenyan spends 10MB of data every single day. If you are such a person, you have to do all you can to save on data and part of this is to use the Lite versions of your favourite apps.
Now Read: How to Get the Most Out of Your Mobile Data
You can download the Nendo report on the state of Mobile Data 2019 here.
