Facebook has announced that its feather-weight Messenger client, Messenger Lite, will be able to do video chats going forward. Facebook launched Messenger Lite in a bid to offer users, with older hardware and slower connections, a way to chat with their Facebook contacts. The app aims to deliver the core Messenger experience without the additional bells and whistles.
In its announcement, Facebook said:
“Video chats are an expected and essential part of everyday communication in today’s messaging experience. Chatting face-to-face live is perfect for those moments when you want to see and hear the voices of people you care about most – whether you’re wishing someone a happy birthday, you have some great news to share, or you spontaneously want to catch up on the day.”
The social media giant has noticed that video chats are extremely popular among users of the standard Messenger client. It said that during 2017, there were 17 billion video chats in Messenger, which is up almost two-fold since 2016. Now, the estimated 900,000 users of Messenger Lite will be able to get in on the video chatting action too!
Video calling in Messenger Lite is simple; update to the latest version of Messenger Lite then open a conversation, you should see a video icon in the upper right-hand corner of the screen which will let you start a video call. If you are in an audio call you can easily upgrade to a video call by tapping the video icon in the bottom right corner of the screen.
Source: Facebook