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Uber Lite is a 5MB app that brings ride hailing to any Android phone

Not every phone has a capacious storage, and Uber knows it.

Katie Collins Senior European Correspondent
Katie a UK-based news reporter and features writer. Officially, she is CNET's European correspondent, covering tech policy and Big Tech in the EU and UK. Unofficially, she serves as CNET's Taylor Swift correspondent. You can also find her writing about tech for good, ethics and human rights, the climate crisis, robots, travel and digital culture. She was once described a "living synth" by London's Evening Standard for having a microchip injected into her hand.
Katie Collins
2 min read
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Uber Lite was designed in India.

Uber

If you don't have space for the  Uber  app on your phone, a slimmed-down new app could be the answer.

The company announced a more compact 5MB version of its ride-hailing app on Tuesday, which keeps the core functions of the service, but strips away the bells and whistles.

Uber Lite is designed specifically to be small and responsive. It's made so that those who can't justify downloading the full-size version of the app onto their phones due to space limitations can still use the service, the company said in a blog post.

As phones get fancier and more advanced, limited storage space is becoming more of a distant memory for those who can afford shiny new phones. But that doesn't mean the problem is just a thing of the past. For many people with older or budget Android phones, it's still something they must contend with every day. Google announced a new, lighter version of its mobile operating system, Android Go , at the end of December just for phones such as these.

Uber says the Lite version of the app will work on any Android phone and on any network, as well as taking up the equivalent of three selfies in space. The app still features in-app support and you'll still be able to share your trip with friends and family, but it has a redesigned interface that relies less heavily on GPS and live access to maps.

The app is currently part of pilot scheme in India, the country where it was built, but should be available in more markets later in the year.