Facebook brings video chat to Messenger Lite

San Francisco: Facebook has introduced video chat in Messenger Lite, a slimmed down version of Messenger for Android intended for people with older devices and/or slower Internet connections.

Messenger Lite is under 10MB, making it fast to install and quick to start up.

It offers core messaging capabilities like sending text, photos, links, and audio calls to people with either Messenger Lite or Messenger.

"Now people who use Messenger Lite can have the same rich and expressive face-to-face conversations as those who use the core Messenger app, no matter which technology they use or have access to," Facebook said in a statement late on Wednesday.

To use video chats on Messenger Lite, users need to open an existing conversation or find the person they would like to chat with in their contact list, then tap the video icon on the upper right corner of the screen.

You can also upgrade an audio call to a video chat while still in the call by tapping the video icon in the bottom right corner of the screen, Facebook said.

Video chats are an expected and essential part of everyday communication in today's messaging experience.

This form of communication is incredibly popular for people who use the Messenger core app.

In 2017, there were 17 billion video chats in Messenger, twice as many video chats compared to 2016.