Apps
12 lightweight versions of your favorite Android apps
Do you want to speed up your phone, free up storage space, and minimize data usage? These lightweight versions of popular apps will be able to help you accomplish those three.
These apps are generally intended for developing regions with slow internet connections and less powerful devices. They’re not as feature-rich as their full-featured counterparts, but sacrificing a few features will go a long way for Android phones with weaker specs.
Camera360 Lite
Camera360 Lite will still deliver your candy selfies with dozens of filters and presets. The best part is that it’s less than 4MB to download.
Facebook Lite
Stay connected with your friends on the world’s most popular social network even with a 2G connection. Instead of accessing the mobile site of Facebook on your phone’s browser, you can download Facebook Lite to get more features and instant notifications.
Files Go
Files Go is designed to work for any Android phone, but devices with low storage will benefit nicely from this app. Instead of relying on crapware for cleaning your phone, download this one made by Google.
Google Go
As Google embraces developing markets more with the introduction of Android Oreo (Go edition), a lightweight version of their search app is up on select countries. Enjoy the best of Google Search without sacrificing precious megabytes.
Line Lite
Line is pretty popular in Asia, and with the stripped-down version of their mobile messaging app, you can message your friends with a package that takes up only 1MB on your phone. Don’t worry, you can still send stickers, images, and emojis.
LinkedIn Lite
Keeping in touch with your professional connections online will be a lot easier with LinkedIn Lite. You can chat with your connections to get job referrals and career advice without a heavy app on your phone.
Messenger Lite
If you have Facebook Lite, you should have Messenger Lite to complement it. Like with Line, you can still do messaging basics with photos, stickers, and even voice calls for longer chitchats.
Opera Mini
Even before Android phones became affordable for the masses, Opera Mini was around on feature phones for loading mobile web pages quickly and neatly. Now that we all have smartphones, the app still doesn’t fail to deliver.
Shazam Lite
Quit guessing and typing the lyrics of what’s playing around you. Shazam already has a straightforward app which lets you record first offline and search when you go online.
Skype Lite
Video calling is pretty heavy on data and storage space, so if you worry about that, Skype’s own lightweight app can help you. You can even do group video calls for free. Some of its features are primarily for India, but everything else works well everywhere.
Twitter Lite
Twitter’s mobile website works wonderfully, but then again, having a dedicated app on your phone is better. If the main Twitter app is too much for your phone (or even for you), there’s the Lite version available for download.
YouTube Go
Here’s another Google-made lightweight app for the rollout of Android Oreo’s Go edition. YouTube Go is designed to be offline-first because it asks to download the video instead of streaming it instantly. You can re-watch the saved video after without spending your data allowance.
With Android Oreo (Go edition) already on its way to manufacturers, these lightweight apps list will soon have more names. Which app should be next?
SEE ALSO: 10 offline free-to-play mobile games on iOS and Android
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Bumble is ushering a new era of dating. The dating app has just rolled out a new brand design. This includes a new logo and user interface with bolder fonts and refreshed colors and illustrations. Along these are many significant updates to the app’s features, giving users better ways to connect with others.
For instance, Bumble has added hundreds of new prompts and have refreshed the prompts UI to help members show off their personalities easier. Shared interests have also been moved to the top of the profiles for users to better spot commonalities. This gives users a snippet of profiles for them to know right away what they have in common. Furthermore, the app has also increased the number of required profile photos to four to boost the likelihood of matches.
Among the new features on Bumble is Opening Moves. This allows women to set a post-match question for their connections to respond to within 24 hours. This facilitates a more meaningful connection and introduces another way to connect outside of Bumble’s Make The First Move. Of course, they may directly message their match even if they haven’t responded to the post-match question.
Meanwhile, Bumble has also expanded its Dating Intentions right from the setup. This is so users can answer the question “What are you hoping to find?” with more accurate choices. Among these are Long Term Relationship, Life Partner, Fun, Casual Dates, Intimacy without commitment, Ethical non-monogamy, and Marriage.
This change stemmed from a Bumble survey that saw 68% of women struggle with people not being upfront about their dating intentions. When browsing, the expanded dating intentions badges will show right below the person’s profile’s “About me” in a section called “I’m looking for.”
Moreover, Bumble has renamed Best Bees to For You. Bumble is employing a new machine learning model to give users their daily set of four curated and relevant profiles based on preferences and past matches.
The changes are part of Bumble’s mantra to empower women to make the first move, flip gender roles, and take control of their dating app experience and dating life in general.
TikTok lost its voice a few months ago. Back in February, the platform lost its rights to use and offer music from artists affiliated with the Universal Music Group. A few weeks ago, Taylor Swift, the biggest artist in that group, returned to the platform. Now, other artists are following suit.
In an official press release, Universal Music Group has announced a new licensing agreement between its artists and TikTok. As a result, users can once again fill their videos with music from artists such as Olivia Rodrigo and BTS.
With the new deal, TikTok’s woes in the music department are finally at an end. When the past deal ended, Universal initially refused a renewal, alleging that TikTok does not adequately pay artists for the use of their music. Once the deadline passed, TikTok was suddenly silent. Existing videos lost their music, and newly minted ones could not use the most popular selection of songs today.
Not surprisingly, Taylor Swift was ahead of the curve. Presumably because of her ownership over her masters, the world’s biggest musical artist returned to the platform without a new Universal deal. The return also came in time for Swift’s latest album, The Tortured Poets Department.
Now, the platform finally has Universal’s entire selection back. If your videos need that extra spice, now’s the time to get back into it.
SEE ALSO: Taylor Swift is back on TikTok
Huawei will soon have its own painting app specifically designed for tablets: GoPaint. This makes the manufacturer the first to have its own self-developed painting app.
Huawei already teased its audiences with a short clip posted on its socials with the caption “Creation begins here.” GoPaint will go live on May 7.
The app will come with a wealth of brushes, and brings easy-to-use features for painting. The eventual launch of this app eliminates the need for beginners to download third-party apps, like ibis Paint X and Sketchbook.
With the integration of GoPaint along with Huawei’s capable hardware-software architecture, Huawei is pushing itself to be a creation go-to for tech users. Previously, the brand held a GoPaint Worldwide Creating Activity last year, which saw creators around the world participate.
The app will surely complement Huawei’s recent lineup of tablets which includes the MatePad 11.5 PaperMatte edition and the MatePad Pro 13.2.
The PaperMatte edition tablet eliminates glare and prevents reflection and fingerprints, replicating the feel of traditional paper. On the other hand, the MatePad Pro 13.2 offers users a smooth and seamless experience for creation, work, content consumption, and more.
The MatePad Pro 13.2 particularly features an OLED screen and works with Huawei’s 3rd gen M-Pencil for more than 10,000 pressure sensing levels. Both tablets support multi-device interconnection, remote PC access, and multi-screen collaboration.
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