Facebook has unveiled a new version of its Messenger app that it says is significantly faster and simpler to use.
The social networking giant says it has rebuilt the app for Apple’s iOS, making it a smaller download which will run smoother on people’s devices.
Messenger is the instant messaging feature of the Facebook platform, which was given its own app in 2011.
Messenger’s engineering vice president Raymond Endres said the changes mean the app should now load twice as fast. “Simplifying our iOS app to make it faster and smaller was no easy feat when more than one billion people rely on Messenger,” he said.
“We reduced Messenger’s core code by 84% – going from more than 1.7 million lines of code to 360 000 – and we rebuilt our features to fit a new, simplified infrastructure. Fewer lines of code makes the app lighter and more responsive, and a streamlined code base means engineers can innovate more quickly.
Streamlined
“As part of the rebuild, a few features will be temporarily unavailable, but we’re working to bring them back soon.”
Facebook said many features within the app had been streamlined as part of the rebuild, which the firm says will make it easier to use.
Writing on his Facebook page about the update, the platform’s co-founder, Mark Zuckerberg, said the app would be about a quarter of the size.
Facebook has confirmed the app had begun to be rolled out to users, but the process would take a “few weeks” to complete.