Facebook’s Messenger Lite is seeing a functional new update today, with the ability to send animated GIFs, personalise chats with a colour and emoji, and assign nicknames to members.
Messenger lite has been a very lightweight, but highly functional (for chat at least) option for users who just want to be able to use the program without the bloat involved in the full version of messenger, as well as users who have an older phone not necessarily capable of running it. The inbound update to Messenger Lite adds a range of functions from the full version but keeps the app small and functional for lower spec devices.
The updates include the ability to not just see animated gif images (which it’s been able to do for some time), but send them as well. From personal experience, a lot of users have taken to expressing their feelings and reactions to discussion in the form of gifs.
Facebook is now also letting you personalise your chats with a custom colour, or an emoji, as well as assign nicknames in a chat. Facebook sees this as a good way to celebrate a birthday, with a cake emoji and a special ‘birthday nickname’ assigned to a user.
The messenger news page notes the other main change delivered is the ability to file share.
If you’d like to share a file, picture, a video, or an audio file with friends and family, you can now do so in Messenger Lite. To share a file, tap the “+” sign, select file or video from the popup, and hit send.
There is undoubtedly more to come in the new year as messenger continues to expand their market share, they will need to cater to markets not yet tapped by their offering.
what functionality do you need in messenger lite to move over from the full function offering?
Talk about annoying. One of my favourite parts of messenger lite was the fact that it didn’t have nicknames. They make group conversations hell.