Facebook Inc has finally launched Messenger Lite in India and after the well-known Facebook Lite, this is the social media giant’s attempt to provide better connectivity in lower bandwidth areas in developing countries like India itself.
While the whole world is moving towards 4G and some countries even testing possible 5G roll-out, connectivity still remains a big concern in developing countries where still more than 40% of the population doesn’t have access to high-speed internet or even no internet at all.
In days of smartphones with heavy processors, there still remains a huge chunk of the population who is still using Symbian OS and other non-Android or non-iOS operating system that struggles to support applications like Facebook which needs regular updates.
While companies have failed to provide endless support with lighter versions of their apps for the old operating systems, they have made sure that people experiencing Android for the first time with their budgeted smartphones and still using 2G data as their primary connectivity option, stay connected to the rest of the world. This is what Messenger Lite stands for.
Also Read: Facebook Messenger ‘Lite’ Launched
Many of you out there might be unaware of the fact that Facebook Lite and Messenger Lite were launched a couple of years back to tackle the above-mentioned barriers, however, while Facebook Lite has witnessed a global launch including India, Messenger Lite has taken its own sweet time to make a touchdown.
Just like its parent app, Messenger Lite is a fast, lightweight, and a simpler version of the app which is basically aimed at low-end Android smartphones used with slow internet connections.
The Messenger Lite takes up less space and fewer resources as compared to the original app and the fact that it uses less memory doesn’t affect the features list. The Messenger Lite offers almost every basic functions like photos, texts, links, even emojis and stickers. Voice calling has also been retained in Messenger Lite along with the ‘Active Now’ feature.
Despite having all these features, the size of this application is just under 10MB, making Messenger Lite quicker to install and boot up.
Facebook first unveiled Messenger Lite back in October last year for users in Kenya, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Tunisia and Venezuela, however, the app was rolled out in 150 countries in April in countries such as Japan, Germany, Vietnam, Netherlands, Peru, Nigeria and Turkey.
Alongside Messenger Lite Facebook also announced that the company will also be rolling out advertisements for its Messenger app in India. These advertisements will be found at the home tab and when clicked upon, the user will be taken to the advertiser’s page.
As for Indian users, despite 4G revolution triggered by Reliance Jio, users are still suffering from lower bandwidths and finances for upgrading to better handsets with bigger storage and high-end processor. Facebook Lite and Messenger Lite, on the other hand, are targeting the same segment and it has been a nice initiative to start with.