News

Instagram Lite Delivers All Essential Features In Just 2 MB

Published

5 years ago

March 18, 2021

Instagram users in more than 170 countries can now download a lite version of the Instagram app from the Google Play Store. The app, called simply Instagram Lite, delivers all essential features the photo and video sharing social network has to offer while using up only 2 MB of storage space.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, many Instagram users have lost access to high-speed internet networks, forcing them to rely on slow and often expensive mobile data instead. One of these users was Michelle Lourie, who’s also a product manager at Facebook.

Working in Israel, she and her team in Tel Aviv collaborated with a New York-based team to develop a lighter alternative to the Instagram app, one that would work great even on low-end Android devices without any major compromises.

“No matter where they are, people want to be entertained and inspired by those that they love. It’s difficult to do that on Instagram with an entry-level phone that has storage constraints,” said Lourie in a statement. “We wanted the Instagram experience to remain fast, high-quality, and reliable, irrespective of the device, platform, and network people are on,” added Tzach Hadar, Director of Product Management at Facebook Tel Aviv.

Also Read: Instagram Music Is Finally Available In The Middle East

After a year of development, Instagram Lite was born. The new app requires users to download only 2 MB of data (the full-size version is approximately 30 MB large), but it offers just about all essential features, including photo and video uploads, creative tools, instant messaging, and more.

Facebook

Additional features will be introduced in future updates. For example, the app’s developers are already working on a dark mode option after receiving countless requests from early users. For people who live in communal areas and close quarters, it’s really important to browse more privately and not bother those around them,” explained Lourie.

News

Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon

Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.

Published

2 weeks ago

August 27, 2026

Dana Saadeh

visa's return to syria starts with a test and a bank in lebanon

Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.

The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.

Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc

— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026

“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.

Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.

Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget

The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.

Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.