Instagram Lite has been deleted from the Google Play Store without any notice: users are forced to use the regular version of the app
The Facebook group makes a nasty surprise to its users with underperforming devices: Instagram Lite no longer exists, it has been removed from the Play Store and is no longer officially supported by the developer. If you want to continue accessing Instagram, therefore, you have to install the traditional app.
Like all Lite versions of Facebook apps, Instagram Lite was also launched (in 2018), to allow even those who do not have a very powerful smartphone to connect to the social of images and use their Instagram profile from the app. "Lite" apps, in fact, are much lighter apps than traditional ones, taking up much less memory on the smartphone and putting much less strain on the processor. The other side of the coin, usually, is more basic graphics and the lack of some functionality. The lite apps, then, are updated separately and so it takes some time before they integrate the latest features available on the main apps. But to many users, despite all these limitations, they're perfectly fine anyway.
Instagram Lite goodbye: no notice
The thing that really bothered Instagram Lite users is that Facebook didn't warn them at all that it was going to retire the app. Simply, from one moment to the next, as of yesterday the app is no longer on the Play Store and those who had previously installed it as soon as they open it they see a message: "Instagram Lite is no longer supported. You can start using the latest version of Instagram." At the base of this decision, most likely, there is the number of users of Instagram Lite: one million. Not little, of course, but crumbs compared to the overall numbers of the social: 1 billion monthly active users, 500 million of whom use the social every day.
Instagram Lite: the alternatives
The numbers just described encapsulate all types of use of Instagram, which are (were) three: the Instagram Lite app, the classic Instagram app and the Instagram site, accessible with a normal web browser. The latter two are the only remaining ways to access Instagram. If our smartphone is too slow for the official app, which is pretty heavy, then we're better off using Instagram from the web browser. It's not super convenient, but it works. And we can even create a shortcut on our phone's Home to access it on the fly, as if it were an app.