Meta has taken action to terminate Messenger Lite, an optimized configuration of Messenger with limited capabilities compared to the original version of the application.
Representatives of the technology giant, in response to a media request for information about the gradual end of the existence of a lightweight version of the messenger, said that these data are reliable. Users of the optimized configuration of the application received messages this week that in order to continue chatting, they should install the standard version of this digital product.
Messenger Lite has been removed from the Google Play virtual store. Current users will not be able to interact with this application from September 18. A Meta representative told the media that from August 21, people who use an optimized version of the digital product for devices with the Android operating system will be redirected to Messenger or FB Lite to send or receive messages.
Messenger Lite for Android was released in 2016. This version of the application has limited functionality, offering a minimal set of options necessary for a virtual communication format. The configuration of the messenger, which is gradually becoming a thing of the past, occupying a place in the museum of digital history, in comparison with the standard development took up less space in the memory of the technical device and had lower requirements for computing power.
Messenger Lite for iOS ceased to exist back in 2020. A simplified version of the application for this operating system was launched in 2018.
Statistics show that the total number of Messenger Lite downloads worldwide was about 760 million. The largest share in the structure of the use of the simplified version of the application in geographical terms belongs to India. Messenger Lite was also a popular digital product in Brazil and Indonesia.
Meta also announced that Messenger will cease to support in September SMS. The company has notified users that they will no longer be able to use this application to send and receive messages in the specified format after September 28.
This week, the tech giant announced its intention to enable end-to-end encryption by default for Messenger by the end of 2023. The company is expanding testing this data transfer method to the chats of millions of people. The firm for the first time in pilot mode launched end-to-end encryption for Messenger back in 2016 for secret conversations. Five years later, this protection was extended to voice messages and video calls. But unlike another popular application of the tech giant called WhatsApp, end-to-end encryption is not yet enabled by default in Messenger.
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