Amazon Releases a 'Lite' Internet Browser for India

 
Amazon has silently released a lite web browser app for Android devices that is touted to be "lighter than the competition". Called Internet, the app is specifically designed to consume less space on the device and comes under 2MB in size. It is also claimed to offer a private user experience by not asking any additional permissions or collect private data like other browsers. The app is available for download via Google Play and is compatible with devices running Android 5.0 Marshmallow and above.

Similar to other web browsers including Google Chrome, Amazon's Internet browser comes with a home page that features an integrated section for trending news. The browser app also offers tab previews and enables an automatic fullscreen mode. Besides, there is an option to switch to private tabs to let users hide browsing history from their devices.

The listing available on Google Play shows that the browser app works with Android 5.0 and above. However, we weren't able to download the app from the Play store on our devices running Android 7.0 and Android 8.1. As first spotted by TechCrunch, the feedback email on Google Play points to Amazon India. This suggests that the app has been built by the Amazon India team.

Notably, the latest web browser app isn't the first "lite" app by Amazon. The company previously released Amazon Kindle Lite app that is already available in India. The Kindle Lite app offers a basic e-book reading experience under 2MB of file size. Also, it is designed to work with slower data speeds and in areas with unstable data connectivity.

Similar to Amazon's efforts towards lightweight mobile apps for emerging markets including India, Facebook and Google are majorly building their native "lite" version apps. Facebook offers Facebook Lite and Messenger Lite to deliver its social networking experience inferior devices with limited data access. Likewise, Google has Gmail Go, Google Go, Google Maps Go, and YouTube Go that all are available pre-installed on devices running Android Oreo (Go Edition).



There’s no shortage of web browsing apps on Google Play, and today, Amazon’s added one of its own to the list for some reason.

It’s called ‘Internet‘, and Amazon says it’s ‘fast, lite, and private.’ To that end, the app weighs in at under 3MB, features a basic design with a bunch of shortcuts and links to trending news articles on the home page, as well as support for incognito browsing.

TechCrunch notes that it’s only available in India at present, and can’t be downloaded on popular devices from Xiaomi and OnePlus at the moment – instead, I only found it to work with the Chuwi Hi9 tablet I’ve been testing. Granted, it hasn’t yet clocked even a thousand downloads, so it’s likely that Amazon is testing it by rolling it


The big question about Internet, though, is, why did Amazon build it? The company already has its Silk browser running on its Android-based Fire tablets and phones, but that app isn’t available in the Amazon Appstore for India.

Internet also doesn’t seem like a particularly compelling alternative for folks in India: it doesn’t yet offer support for local languages, and doesn’t work any better as a browser than what you’d get from pre-installed options on devices from most manufacturers.

It’s possible that this is part of a larger strategy for Amazon in India: it launched its Echo speakers in the country a few months ago, complete with customizations and localized skills for its Alexa assistant to work for the Indian audience – and its Prime subscription service, along with music and video streaming, is going strong. But it’ll need to do better with its browser if it wants people to switch from Chrome or anything else that’s already installed on their phones.

We’ve contacted Amazon to learn more and will update this post if there’s a response.