Facebook rolls out ‘faster’ Messenger app for iOS

MANILA, Philippines – Facebook announced on Monday, March 2, that it’s beginning to roll out a new version of its Messenger app for iOS devices. 

Internally called Project LightSpeed, the new version is said to have been completely overhauled to make it faster, smaller, and simpler than its predecessor. 

“We’ve completely rewritten Messenger to get a lot faster. Starting today, we’ll be rolling out the new Messenger app for iOS,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a post. 

“Once the rollout is complete, Messenger will be one quarter the size and load twice as fast. When you open Messenger throughout the day, it will feel much faster and more responsive compared to other apps you use,” he added. 

Facebook said that they were able to pull this off by simplifying Messenger’s code by 84%, going from 1.7 million lines of code to just 360,000. The app’s design was also streamlined in the process, with some features reportedly being temporarily removed. 

It’s not entirely clear yet which features were removed and when they might return, but the social media giant promised that they are working on bringing them back soon. 

What’s not likely to come back, however, is the Discover tab, which is where users could find business accounts, mostly operated by chat bots. According to a report from TechCrunch, this change is part of Facebook’s ongoing push to once again make Messenger a functional chat app.

iOS users can expect to receive the update in the next few weeks. – Rappler.com