Facebook vs. Facebook Lite

Facebook and Facebook Lite are two different apps. Why are there two separate apps? What’s the difference between Facebook and Facebook Lite? The blog post looks at both and covers Facebook vs. Facebook Lite.

Facebook Lite is no longer available for iOS devices.

Quick Facebook vs. Facebook Lite

Facebook takes up a lot more storage than Facebook Lite, offering over 20 features (more than Facebook Lite). For people with a limited data plan or who have an old phone, Facebook Lite would suit them better.

Feature	Facebook	Facebook Lite
Total features	38 (23 unique)	17 (2 unique)
Download size on Android	74MB	1.9MB
Storage on Android	205MB	5.75MB
Storage on iPhone	420 MB to 430 MB	20 MB to 25 MB

The Facebook app

One of the most downloaded apps, Facebook, has been here for a long time. The app is fast and comes with many features.

However, it is slow on smaller devices and has many unnecessary options making it too much for some people.

What is Facebook Lite

Facebook Lite app is a light version of the Facebook app. First released in 2015, the app offers all the essential features while occupying less storage and using fewer resources.

The app is designed for excuses, such as insufficient storage or slow connections. It also supports more OS versions than the original Facebook app.

All features in both

The main difference between Facebook and Facebook Lite comes from the number of features. Facebook Lite offers the basic functionalities, but in total, more than ten features are not available.

The table below compares all the features of both apps.

Facebook

Facebook Lite

React, comment, tag, and share Groups Marketplace Memories Pages Events Gaming Jobs Ads Manager Live videos Mentorship Messenger Kids Most recent feed Movies Recent Ad Activity Nearby friends Oculus VR Find WiFi Fundraisers Offers Weather Send or Request Money Device Requests Crisis Response City Guides Reels Dark mode Avatars Facebook pay Ads payment Fantasy games COVID-19 information center Community help Climate science center Blood donations Emotional health Code generator Your time on Facebook

React, comment, tag, and share Groups Marketplace Memories Pages Events Gaming Jobs Ads Manager Live videos Most recent feed Dark mode Save video on Facebook lite (use device storage) Reels Meta Pay (Facebook Pay) Ads payment Data saver mode

In addition to the above, to save data and resources, Facebook Lite does not automatically load the news feed like the Facebook app, so the feed takes longer to load while browsing.

Considering the above features, we understand that many GPS-enabled and community-focused features are unavailable on Facebook Lite.

Both apps come with a dark mode. However, Facebook Lite adapted the dark mode theme before the Facebook app.

Related: What’s the Difference Between Messenger and Messenger Lite

Interface

Menu buttons

On the Facebook app, there is the home, videos, marketplace, feed, search, messenger, notifications, and main menu.

The Facebook Lite app includes feed, friend requests, messenger, notifications, videos, and main menu buttons.

There is a plus icon button on the top of Facebook. It lets you create posts, stories, and reel videos. Furthermore, there is an option to go live. The button is not available in the latter.

Video interface

Facebook only offers a play/pause button for videos. To forward or rewind the video, you can only utilize the seek bar.

In Facebook Lite, however, there is also a forward and backward button. Clicking those moves the video by 10 seconds in either direction.

When clicking the three-dot menu symbol in the upper-right corner of the video, all the options are the same, but there are some distinguishing features.

On Facebook, there are two unique options. The first is to cast a video to a nearby TV or Chromecast device, and the other is to rate your playback experience.

In comparison, Facebook Lite offers an additional option called “Save video to Facebook Lite.” It uses the device’s cache storage to save videos.

App design and user-experience

As you browse, you find differences in fonts, font size, buttons, and more. That’s because the latter can work adequately on low-resolution devices.

Facebook Lite reminds you of the old Facebook design and layout, so if you are old school and want to remind yourself of your early days, then Facebook Lite might be the app to try.

Reel video

The reel video interface differs slightly in terms of commenting.

In the former, the comment box is visible on video clips, and when commenting, the comment box pops over half the screen, and the video continues to play in the background.

In the latter, you need to click on the comment icon as there is no comment box. Clicking on it opens a new screen, and the video is paused.

Furthermore, Facebook brings the save reel option, which is missing from its opponent.

Storage

Facebook app occupies 205MB of storage on Android, whereas Facebook Lite takes 5.57MB.

That’s a difference of over 95%. The Facebook app takes 298.2MB of storage on the iPhone. The Lite app is not available on the iPhone.

The primary reasons for the massive difference in storage are images, missing features, saved fonts, etc.

Using reduced pixels images makes a huge difference, while saved fonts also impact. There are many little things that we overlook, but together those options make a huge difference.

Permissions

For privacy freaks, Facebook Lite may be the best option. The Facebook original app has 44 permissions, including storage, calendar, camera, contacts, location, microphone, and telephone.

Thanks to Android updates, you can deny specific permissions. Still, considering the above features, if you allow all, you will enable the app to enter your personal life.

Facebook Lite is also not that great, but it offers fewer permissions than Facebook. The major permissions (mentioned above) are the same, but in total, it comes with 33 permissions.

Additional differences

Messaging

To message on Facebook, you must first download the Messenger app. Clicking on the “Messenger” button takes you to that Messenger application.

On the other hand, Facebook Lite enables you to access messages directly within the app.

There is no need to download a separate application. However, the Messenger Lite app is also available for a better user experience.

Video quality and data usage

Both allow you to change the video resolution to save data, but Facebook Lite also lets you choose between two additional options:

• Optimized: Adjust video quality according to network strength.
• Lowest-quality video: Reduce up to 20% more data usage.

Which one is for you?

The below list explains a few situations where you might want to consider the Facebook Lite app.

• You don’t have enough storage.
• You are using an older version of Android, and it sometimes freezes or lags while using the Facebook app.
• Your phone or network does not support 3G or 4G. Facebook Lite works on 2G networks, according to the post on the Facebook website.
• You don’t want unnecessary features such as weather, find WiFi, etc.
• You have a limited data plan.

Wrap up

Here is the end of Facebook vs. Facebook Lite. Facebook Lite lacks some features but might help save memory and storage.

Anyway, I hope the article helped. Let me know what you think and which one you will use in the comments below, and subscribe to the newsletter for future updates.