Instagram Lite debuted in June 2018 but was shut down in May 2020. It came back in September 2020, and soon after rolled out in India. The Instagram Lite app ditched IGTV, Shop and Reels features from the main app. Now, the company is rolling out a new update, which adds Reels to the Instagram Lite app.

Instagram Lite has been created to bring the core Instagram experience to people who are unfamiliar with the app. The app was rolled out without the support for Reels, Instagram’s answer to TikTok. Plus, there is no Shop or IGTV. Moreover, the app has the old layout with the search tab at the bottom, which was recently replaced by the Reels tab. 

However, things are changing now. The 2MB version of the Instagram app is adding the Reels feature in India. It will allow Indian users to watch the popular short-format videos in the Reels tab. That said, Instagram Lite users will not be able to create Reels on the app. The Lite app is available in multiple regional languages, including Bangla, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu.

In a statement regarding the update, Facebook said, “Now with this update, everyone using the Instagram Lite app in India will be able to view Reels with the Reels tab. This feature was expedited for India because of the traction Reels is seeing in India, and the early adoption of the new Instagram Lite app.”

Instagram recently announced that it will stop promoting Reels with TikTok watermarks. It rolled out guidelines that advised against uploading recycled videos (lifted from the likes of TikTok) with a visible logo or watermark.