Literally back to basics.
Facebook developed Messenger Lite for parts of the world that had much slower or spottier internet. And now, they’ve released it in the U.S., UK, Canada and Ireland.
And true to its name, it is lighter. Gone are all tabs other than Home, Contacts and Profile. That’s not to say that everything else is gone, though. You can still send stickers (they’re not animated, though), send pictures, dictate, or send calls. The app is just streamlined. And really doesn’t do the whole “games” thing.
It is also lightweight compared to its big brother. It just runs faster without all the extraneous junk. So, of you’re tired of your slow Messenger experience, you can snag Messenger Lite now. Unless you’re on iOS; they’ve only released it for Android.