Facebook announced a new messenger today called Messenger Lite. The standalone version of Facebook Messenger is only available for Android. Messenger Lite is a stripped down version of the already popular Facebook Messenger that offers the core features we all love features like messaging, sending and receiving photos and links, and receiving stickers.

Messenger Lite uses the same bolt logo as Messenger, but with colors reversed. The bolt is blue with a white chat bubble background.

Messenger Lite is under 10MB to make for a fast install and quick to start up. Messenger Lite was designed for markets with slower than average internet speeds and basic Android smartphones.

Facebook statedFurthering our goal to empower people all over the world to stay connected, today we’re launching a new app called Messenger Lite” going on to say “More than 1 billion people around the world use Messenger every month from a range of mobile devices on networks of various speeds and reliability. With Messenger Lite, more people can stay in contact, regardless of network conditions or storage limitations on their Android devices. Messenger Lite was built to give people a great Messenger experience, no matter what technology they use or have access to.

Messenger Lite is starting to roll out to people in Kenya, Tunisia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Venezuela. Messenger Lite will roll out in other countries in the coming months.

I can see this being a big app in the US with people struggling with capped data plans this could be a way for users to cut back on data usage on their smartphone plans. This would make a great at as well for users with small data plans that use prepay. I am curious to see if they will have an iPhone version of this app by the time it rolls out in America.