Just a thought.
They already made Lite versions of Facebook and Instagram.
And a lot of the new functions (stories, screen share, and the avatar emojis) only come as bloat for users like me.
So i think they should make an official app that came without those "features", having a priority on simplicity and data saving.
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Have a look at Beeper, essentially an app which connects to the web version of Whatsapp, unfortunately does not support calls but for chats and group chats should cover everything.
http://beeper.com/download
In terms of a light version, it's unlikely. They're playing to their biggest markets of India and Europe, where these features are well used (I've seen a lot of statuses used for "Good Morning messages", and business announcing discounts or news.)
I dislike stories, but I have a very small social circle, none of which think waking up or buying a pretty looking cocktail as an achievement worth sharing publicly.
I feel weird about using a proprietary matrix client, but it does look pretty and would be at least a marginal improvement over using whatsapp + facebook messenger... probably...