Microsoft to retire Windows Live Messenger in favor of Skype


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Microsoft to retire Windows Live Messenger in favor of Skype

Microsoft is working towards retiring its Windows Live Messenger client in favor of Skype.The Verge has learned through several sources that Microsoft's Windows Live Messenger service will be retired in the coming months and integrated into Skype. Microsoft has slowly been moving people over to the Messenger backend for Skype over the past few months, with around 80 percent of all IMs sent on Skype being handled by Messenger.

The company will announce the retirement of Windows Live Messenger soon, possibly as early as this week according to sources. The move follows efforts by Skype to link Microsoft accounts to Skype login names ahead of its global retirement plan for Windows Live Messenger. Users of Skype 6.0 for Mac and Windows are now greeted with options to log in using a Microsoft or Facebook account. The Verge reached out to Microsoft for comment on the retirement, we'll update you accordingly.

Source: The Verge

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what happens when I already got a hotmail and a skype account? can I merge contacts? or they just refer to the client?

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what happens when I already got a hotmail and a skype account? can I merge contacts? or they just refer to the client?

The Windows 8 Skype app offers to merge accounts so I'm guessing that'll be an option for everyone.

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...I tried WLM 2011 once and did not like having all this social garbage thrown at me..

That can all be turned off. Having said that, I wouldn't use WLM without A-patch.

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what happens when I already got a hotmail and a skype account? can I merge contacts? or they just refer to the client?

You can merge the two accounts. I logged into skype with MS account, then it asked me for my skype username and it merged them.

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Good!!! Skype is amazing and I LOVE THE MAC BETA!!! They have made it so conversations can be opened in separate windows just like WLM. Also the emoticons have been updated to HD ones and they look fantastic!

A tip to everyone: I have not seen adverts in a skype call or anywhere in skype for years, this is how to get around it, buy some skype credit and make use of it until you have 1p left, keep the 1p credit on your account (which is easy enough because skype won't even let you call to use up that 1p) and you will not see adverts at all in Skype :)

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You can merge the two accounts. I logged into skype with MS account, then it asked me for my skype username and it merged them.

I merged my accounts and it screwed everything up, only showing me contacts from the account I use least. It wasn't a "merge" in the traditional sense.

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Was going to happen.

It makes sense, i understand that the dedicated WLM users will not be happy but it is good to move forward rather than stay stagnant.

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Of all the messengers, I would have picked WLM to keep alive, and keep skype as a separate app, I'm not keen on Skype for messaging and never use video calling anyway

yeah same, was going to post this...I am not a fan of Skype

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I am quite unhappy with this move: I use WLM to contact my friends and Skype for my business colleagues because this is the VOIP software used where I work.

I would have rather kept this two sides of me separated.

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I am quite unhappy with this move: I use WLM to contact my friends and Skype for my business colleagues because this is the VOIP software used where I work.

I would have rather kept this two sides of me separated.

Yeah, I like keeping business and personal separate as well. Maybe have two different accounts? =/

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The death of WLM is hardly a surprise to me. Microsoft have no reason to keep two IM products alive. Not that I've used WLM at all lately anyway; I have two Skype accounts - one for work, one personal. All other IM accounts I used to have were retired, save for FB chat (which is also integrated into Skype, negating the need for another client).

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when i was in high school and university i used to use Windows Messager all the time however, i can say i have not used it in roughly 2 years now. I generally either use Facebook chat (Via Digsby) or Google Talk (Also via Digsby)

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Bleh... I don't use Skype, and I can't use it from work, unlike WLM... All my family etc use WLM... :( This seems like a silly decision to me, considering WLM is the far more mature IM than Skype...

Oh well, guess I'll see if I can switch them over to Google Talk instead. Nurtz.

There's rather a lot of apps that are built off of WLM, like eBuddy. I bet they're not best pleased with this decision!

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Ah, my favourite, the "I don't personally use it, so there's no need for it to exist" mentality.

There are enough technical reason for killing WLM too. Skype has been moved over to the Messenger backend for one. This means they'd have two products with identical tech and feature set. So why not kill the worse of the two?

Ah, my favourite, the "I don't personally use it, so there's no need for it to exist" mentality.

There are enough technical reason for killing WLM too. Skype has been moved over to the Messenger backend for one. This means they'd have two products with identical tech and feature set. So why not kill the worse of the two?

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I don't think it's a bad move and hey, I love WLM. But really, it's just pointless for them to have two clients and Skype is ok for messages and waay better for both audio and video calls. That plus the whole brand thing.

For the guy talking about separating your business and personal contacts, well, you don't have to merge the accounts, I'm sure. You can keep your old Skype account and just make a new one with your WLM address (I mean... Microsoft account :p). It will have all your contacts there already.

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This in part a good move. I never liked WLM 2011/2 at all. I don't mind Skype, so i'll look to see if I can convert over and start using this.

Getting sick of having so many different messengers lol!

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