Almost everyone uses Messenger at least once in a while to chat with friends, colleagues and family. Although WhatsApp is one of the largest services, there are also many alternatives. However, one of them is now discontinued.
After six years, Meta is pulling the plug on Messenger Lite. The service was launched in Germany in April 2017 as a slimmed-down alternative to Facebook Messenger, which has been around since 2011. Compared to the extensive program, the Lite version not only requires significantly less storage space on the smartphone, it also reacts a little faster due to its slimmer structure. However, users have to do without some functions for this. However, Facebook and, for some time, Meta itself have hardly marketed Messenger Lite, and the “big” Messenger was often advertised instead. Now the Lite version is even completely discontinued.
Messenger Lite will be discontinued in mid-September
Meta informs the user about the step directly when they call up the app. Anyone who starts Messenger Lite will see an information page indicating that the service will no longer be available from September 18th. “We know your chats are important to you. Therefore, all chats from Messenger Lite are still available in Messenger.”
Messenger Lite can still be used as usual until mid-September. By then at the latest, users will have to switch to Messenger. All previous chats are automatically transferred. If you don’t want to install the app, you can only access your chats via the desktop version of Facebook. Because as soon as you call up Facebook via your smartphone, you are also referred to the messenger for chatting.
Messenger with partly critical access rights
The Messenger Lite can no longer be found in the Google Play Store or Apple App Store. Only Messenger is listed here. The service is rated moderately on both platforms – with 3.8 (Google) and 3.9 (Apple) out of 5 stars. Above all, users complain about the deteriorating performance after updates and some functions that have been discontinued.
We took a closer look at the access rights of both messengers and found some differences that don’t make Messenger look good compared to Messenger Lite. Messenger, which will be offered as the only alternative for Facebook chat from mid-September, not only has more functions, it also has more rights. This becomes particularly clear when you look at the app permissions of both services side by side.
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In comparison to the Lite version, the Messenger can, for example, call telephone numbers directly, read, receive and send SMS, call up the exact location of the user, download files without notification, and view various connections on the smartphone and change basic settings. In addition, the messenger collects financial data, which is described in the Google Play Store with the points “payment information of the user, previous purchases, credit scoring and other financial data” and in the Apple App Store simply with “other financial information”.
Anyone who pays attention to the protection of their data should therefore think carefully about whether they want to download and use the messenger on their smartphone. Although WhatsApp also belongs to Meta, users do not have to grant quite as generous access rights here. If you want to be on the safe side, choose specially protected messengers such as Threema or Signal for communication. We have presented alternatives to WhatsApp in another article.
TECHBOOK means
“I’ve been using Messenger Lite for a few years. I only installed the app back then because of a person who doesn’t have WhatsApp and only chats via Facebook. Then as now, the ‘big’ Messenger was no alternative for me. I found the app to be too bloated and data hungry. Now that I’ve had another look at the app permissions, my opinion is even more reinforced. For me, the discontinuation of Messenger Lite means that I will completely forgo the offer in the future. I now have to think of another method of being able to continue communicating with the person named. In future I will probably only be able to do this via the desktop version of Facebook.” – Rita Deutschbein, Editor-in-Chief