Facebook has announced their launch of Video Chat on Messenger Lite for Android, a streamlined version of the app offering core features for older devices.

Keeping it lite

Facebook has made the feature available across nearly all its platforms, tailored for legacy devices and users with slower internet connections, the update ensures everyone can video chat.

Video chat has become an expected feature amongst social network users and according to Facebook has become “an essential part of everyday communication in today’s messaging experience.”

2017 saw more than 17 billion video chats through Messenger alone, effectively doubling their previous numbers of 2016, hence the new push to cater to older devices.

The specs

Messenger Lite’s video chat offers messaging, photo and link sharing, and audio calls just like its parent app but needs only 10MB of storage to install, making it fast and easy to start up.

To access the new feature, users need only download the latest version of Lite, open a conversation and tap the video icon of the upper right corner. That’s it.

Audio calls in progress can easily be switched to video at the tap of a button as well. Though the feature isn’t groundbreaking, it demonstrates an expected standard that users prefer face to face conversations.

Have you used Messenger Lite? Are you surprised at the addition? Give us your thoughts in the comments below.