At the Facebook’s F8 conference in San Jose, California, the company announced they are currently testing Instagram that’ll soon be available on Android handsets. The company said they are working on iOS version. The mode is primarily aimed at developing countries that often face low or limited data connectivity options.
Techcrunch reports, that in the offline Instagram you can like posts, comment on them, save media, and unfollow accounts. Using the offline mode, you should be able to view profiles that you had visited at some point in time, you can also view posts that had loaded in your feed previously. And apart from these, you can view older versions of your profile as well as the Explore tab.
Although the offline mode targets developing countries, anyone the mode will also be handy to anyone using the app when traveling to those countries.
More than 80% Instagram user live outside the US and a massive chunk live in developing countries, in areas where there are low connectivity options. Instagram could have drawn inspiration from Facebook lite that had around 200 million users after a year of rolling out. The app could very well take advantage of this massive opportunity.
Instagram was launched back in 2010 and the mobile photo-sharing application and service gained rapid popularity with over one million registered users in just two months and some 10 million within in a year, ultimately reaching 600 million by the end of 2016. Instagram was acquired by Facebook in April 2012 for approximately $1 billion. Coping Snapchat, Instagram launched Stories and recently they took a leap with over 200 million Stories users on a daily basis. Snapchat, who had originally come up with the Stories idea has got some 158 million users in February of 2017.
As for now, there’s no word on when exactly will be getting the Instagram update. Hopefully soon enough.