Meta is shutting down Messenger Lite, a stripped-down version of Messenger, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. App users are starting to see messages advising them to "continue chatting with Messenger." The app has been removed from the Google Play Store for new users and will no longer be available after September 18 for existing users. Meta, then known as Facebook, introduced Messenger Lite for Android in 2016 for users with smaller Android devices. This application offers only the basic features of Messenger to allow for minimal storage space and processing power. Although Meta launched Messenger Lite for iOS, the company shut it down in 2020. According to mobile research firm data.ai, the Lite version of the app has an estimated 760 million downloads worldwide, with India gaining the highest share, followed by Brazil and Indonesia.
The United States ranks eighth in lifetime downloads. This news comes as Meta recently announced that Messenger is dropping SMS support next month. The company told users that they "will no longer be able to use Messenger to send and receive SMS messages sent on your mobile network after updating your app after September 28, 2023."Last week, Meta announced plans to enable end-to-end encryption for Messenger by the end of this year. The tech giant is also extending its end-to-end privacy testing to "millions of other conversations."
“Starting August 21, people using the Messenger Lite app for Android will be directed to Messenger or FB Lite to send and receive messages on Messenger,” a Meta spokesperson told TechCrunch in an email.
