Facebook (now Meta) released the Messenger Lite application back in 2016. It was intended to be a simple, lightweight and, as a result, efficient version of the messenger for the weakest smartphones and devices with slow data transfer. That’s why the application was first made available only in markets where the cheapest smartphones were very popular – including: in Kenya, Sri Lanka and Venezuela.
The light and fast messenger quickly turned out to be a hit, and users in other countries decided to install it from unofficial sources (e.g. an apk file). Therefore, Facebook decided to make Messenger Lite available in other markets and in April 2017, the application was also available in Poland. Ultimately, it lasted just over 6 years.
The end of Messenger Lite. The owner of Facebook is killing an application that is no longer needed
Recently, however, Meta decided to disable Messenger Lite. A month ago, the conglomerate announced that this would happen on September 18. The application has been no longer available on Google Play for some time. From Tuesday, the ability to receive and send messages from the messenger was disabled for people who were still using the application. The only solution for these users is to uninstall Messenger Lite and install standard Messenger. Of course, all remembered conversations with friends are assigned to a given account, so they will be available as normal after logging in to the new app.
Meta did not provide the reasons for killing Messenger Lite, but it is easy to guess that the existence of such an application does not make much sense nowadays. Smartphones have made a huge leap in performance in recent years, and even cheap devices are now able to handle full-fledged Messenger.
Messenger Lite for iPhones was probably disabled in 2020 for similar reasons. According to data.ai data cited by the app, the Android version was downloaded approximately 760 million times, and was most popular in India, Brazil and Indonesia (the USA was only in 8th place). Full-fledged Messenger currently has over 5 billion downloads worldwide on Google Play.
Source: Gazeta
Mabel is a talented author and journalist with a passion for all things technology. As an experienced writer for the 247 News Agency, she has established a reputation for her in-depth reporting and expert analysis on the latest developments in the tech industry.
