14 DAY TRIAL // Last year, Facebook launched Facebook Lite for Android, a variant of the Facebook application that had a lower size and only basic features on it. The app was initially made available to users from Latin America and Africa.
Today, Facebook announced Messenger Lite, a lightweight version of the popular chat application. Messenger Lite for Android will initially be made available in five countries: Kenya, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, and Venezuela.
David Marcus, Facebook's head of Messenger, has announced that the app will be made available to other countries after the initial launch date. Just like Facebook Lite, Messenger Lite has a reduced size of just 10MB and is faster and quicker to start. The application was designed for older Android smartphones, circa 2009-2011, David Marcus stated.
Messenger Lite comes with core Messenger tools
Messenger Lite will contain the main Messenger features, such as messaging, sending and receiving content, including photos and links. The application will also support receiving stickers in conversations and will be designed for markets that have slower than average Internet speeds and mostly Android phones.
Messenger Lite won't have the same logo as the main app, as the colors are reversed. This means that the bolt is blue on a white chat bubble background.
Messenger is one of the most popular chat applications out there, considering that it currently has 1 billion users worldwide. Facebook has paid close attention to this app and it recently introduced instant video options on Android and iOS. Considering that Messenger Lite is designed for markets with relatively slow Internet speeds, this feature might not be made available in the new app.
SMS integration came to Messenger this summer, as another feature that would convince users to stay as long as possible inside the app and not switch to other services.