If you’ve ever read praise for Facebook products on The Verge, it won’t have come from me. I’m baffled by the design of the company’s website, aggravated by the pushy data-thirsty ways of its apps, and unimpressed by the contrived niceness of its founder and boss. In short: Vlad Savov, not a Facebook fan. But, for the first time, I am a fan of a particular offshoot of Facebook and that’s the Messenger Lite chat application that recently rolled out to Android phones in the US, UK, Canada, and Ireland. It’s good. Shockingly good.
Internet messaging is one of those things that has been undergoing reinvention pretty much since the internet began. Last week we were reminded of the existence of AIM just long enough to reminisce about our...
