Facebook Messenger Lite, the excellent, cruft-free of Facebook’s chat app that focuses on the essentials. It is expanding to the US, UK, Canada, and Ireland.

Messenger Lite is strictly focused on messaging and doesn’t include recent additions like stories, Snapchat-ish selfie lens effects, or games. The Android-only app was originally launched so that users could access Messenger in areas with sluggish mobile connectivity.

But even outside of its intended markets, Android users have taken to sideloading Messenger Lite as an escape from the growing ball of features that the main Android and iOS app has become.

If you’re annoyed by all that extra stuff on regular Messenger, the new version is for you. But the slimmed down Messenger is also missing things. Things that some people might find useful like chat heads and video calling. Either way, now you can give it a shot and see if you prefer the sticks-to-the-basics design of Lite or find yourself going back to the bloated Messenger app.

Source: http://www.theverge.com