Facebook's Messenger is getting an upgrade. The social networking giant on Monday said it'll be rolling out a faster, simpler version of the iOS app over the next few weeks.
The new iteration of Messenger will load twice as fast and be one-fourth its original size, Facebook says. That means it'll start, download and update more quickly for everyone, even people who have older devices or are in areas with lower connectivity.
"We reduced Messenger's core code by 84 percent -- going from 1.7+ million lines of code to 360,000 -- and we rebuilt our features to fit a new simplified infrastructure," the company said in a statement. "Fewer lines of code makes the app lighter and more responsive, and a streamlined code base means engineers can innovate more quickly."
Facebook says Messenger has more than 1 billion users.
Some features of the app will be temporarily unavailable during the rebuild, but the company says it's working to bring them back soon. Facebook also noted that this measure "lays the foundation to fulfill our vision for private messaging and interoperability across apps," as it plans to integrate Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram.
