Twitter’s Mobile Site Now Uses One-Third Less Bandwidth

Twitter just announced an update to its mobile site that is meant to bring it up to par with the new version of Twitter the company introduced in December. According to Twitter, the idea behind this update is to “give every person on the planet a consistent Twitter experience.” Because of this, the company says, the new version of the mobile site now uses one-third less bandwidth than the previous iteration and should work significantly better on feature phones, older browsers and low-bandwidth connections.

This new version will start rolling out today.

According to Twitter’s VP of Product Satya Patel, the company aims to “make Twitter the most accessible way to connect with the world, even with the weakest signals and the simplest devices.”

Given that feature phones still represent the majority of mobile phones in use today, it makes sense for the company to try to reach more of this market by optimizing its mobile site for these devices.

The updated version of the mobile site, says Patel, should feel just like a native app and gives users access to all the standard Twitter features, including @mentions in the Connect tab, direct messages and trending stories in the Discover tab.