Facebook Rolls Out Messenger Lite for Low-Internet Areas in India

Facebook Messenger Lite will come devoid of all the bells and whistles that the main app offers. (Photo: iStock)

Facebook rolled out the "lite" version of its Messenger app in India on 13 July. After Facebook Lite, Twitter Lite and YouTube Go, this is the fourth app that has been designed for countries like India, where the internet bandwidth can go as low as 2G even in 2017.

With a size just under 10MB, Messenger Lite offers the same basic functions as Messenger, enabling users to send and receive texts, photos, links, emojis and stickers.

Messenger Lite has voice calling, active now indicator and the ability to view, add and remove group members.

Messenger Lite was previously rolled out in countries such as Vietnam, Nigeria, Peru, Turkey, Germany, Japan and the Netherlands.

Messenger Lite is a lightweight, fast and simpler version that offers the core features of the app for markets with slower than average internet speeds and a prevalence of basic Android smartphones

Facebook statement

The Messenger app on Android has nearly 5,000,000,000 downloads and has been rated four out of five by 46,056,597 users.