Spotify Lite is here, and it’s designed for your old Android

Spotify Lite launches today after a lengthy beta test period. The new app is available for download in 36 countries across Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East, and has been designed with one goal in mind: to service customers who don’t own the latest handsets or have access to a consistent 4G signal.

Compared to the regular Spotify app, Spotify Lite certainly earns its name. Weighing in at only 10MB, the new app is ten times less space-consuming than its big sibling, and it’s compatible with Android 4.3 “Jelly Bean” and above. Amazingly, this means that owners of such prehistoric relics as the Samsung Galaxy S3 or Nokia X2 can use it.

According to the trailer, Spotify Lite’s features have been pared down in comparison to the standard app, and the user interface has had a mild redesign. You can, however, still save your favourite songs and share them with unwitting friends or colleagues.

It’s not really about the features, though: what Spotify Lite offers is a data-friendly way to stream music. Spotify claims that the new app will run even on the weakest of mobile connections – the trailer uses 2G as an example. In addition, the app allows users to control how much data it consumes, which means pay-as-you-go customers (or those with data-light contracts) can manually prevent overspending.

The new app is available to download right now, but only if you live in one of the following countries: Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Chile, Colombia, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Uruguay, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Algeria, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, Oman, Jordan, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, South Africa, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia or India.

Spotify Lite joins a growing crowd of “Lite” apps that includes Facebook, Instagram and Tinder. Given that plenty of us suffer to an albeit lesser extent with mediocre mobile signals, we’re hoping to see the app launch here in the UK before long.