Ride-hailing app goes minimalist

Uber Lite is a streamlined version aimed at regions with slow internet

Uber thinks it’s worth three selfies for riders in India to use its app. In fact, on Tuesday, Uber unveiled a new version of its app for riders in India who it claims will use as much data to download to their phones as those three selfie photos.

Uber is calling the new app Uber Lite. It is a slimmed down version of the standard Uber app, designed for emerging nations where mobile phones and networks may not be on the level with those in the United States and other developed countries. For example, Uber Lite uses a progress bar to show how close a driver is to picking up a rider because such a function uses less data than the maps that appear in the standard Uber app.

Uber Lite is initially rolling out in beta testing in India, and the company said the app will be available in more countries later this year. In order to make Uber Lite work better with phones in India, the company has designed it to take only 5 megabytes of data to download, which Uber claims is equal to three selfies, and uses 85 percent less than the amount of data necessary to download the traditional Uber app.

Uber said Uber Lite will work on Android phones over any network, but is not yet available for iPhones or other smartphones. Uber said this is because the majority of phones the company is hoping to reach are on the Android operating system.

This isn’t Uber’s first foray into India, however. The company launched its UberBLACK service in Bangalore, India, in August 2013, and now operates in 34 cities around the country, with 3 million weekly active riders.