Microsoft to replace Windows Live Messenger with Skype

[sathish.k]

Technology giant Microsoft is all set to replace its age-old instant-messaging service, Windows Messenger, with communication software Skype.

It has been only 18 months since Microsoft bought Skype in a multibillion-dollar deal, and now the operating system giant is set to make it its default messaging app.

It is expected that Windows Live Messenger will be withdrawn completely from the world (except for China) in March 2013. Microsoft is now ready to put its entire focus on Skype and promote it.

Windows Live Messenger, launched in 1999 under the name MSN Messenger, was Microsoft’s first attempt at providing a messaging service. It started as a text-only peer-to-peer service, but later added things like photo delivery, games and video calls. Research showed that Windows Live Messenger had 330 million active users online.

Interestingly, however, Windows Messenger was still the second-most popular messaging service and had more users than Skype at the start of this year. Yet there were signs that weren’t too positive for the messenger, as US audience had fallen to just 8.3 million new users and were dropping every year by almost 50 percent.

[Mike-R]

Well this solved the Skype vs. MSN issue I was discussing with Elan. I had asked about getting everyone on my Skype so I can be easily reached after hours. Elan mentioned most people use MSN, not Skype. I looked for a good MSN client for Android, but all the options I found had reviews mentioning various issues.

If MSN and Skype are merging, then we might as well just use Skype. The Android client is pretty decent I've found.

[humanresource]

Ohh!!! Does that mean, it is time for us to shift to Skype from MSN Sathish?

[beniston]