MSN Messenger Ends Journey after Glorious 15 Years

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Microsoft never promises anything. If you use one Microsoft product today, you will never know if it will exist tomorrow. This is what happened to MSN Messenger, which was the ultimate messaging solution to keep in touch with your loved ones among thousands of developers and other users nearly 15 years back.

Microsoft has officially announced that the MSN Messenger (Windows Live Messenger) service will not exist on or after October 31, 2014. Even though Microsoft retired the service last year, people in China continued to enjoy its services due to some reasons. Microsoft has issued notifications to all MSN Messenger users based in China to make use of Skype for all communication purposes. I really don’t know why Microsoft has given an extension of time in 2013 to users in China.

This development marks the end of glorious journey which began in 1999. If you ask me, MSN Messenger was very simple to use and operate. It was very much user friendly that even a small kid could easily learn its usage.

Microsoft discontinued MSN Messenger service to pave way for Skype. With the help of skype, you can not only chat but also make calls by purchasing credits. As of the time of this writing, Skype is available for PC, AAndroid and Windows Phone platforms.

Don’t worry. You can still view all your current contacts inside Skype if you login using your Microsoft account.

Summary of all the good stuff done with MSN Messenger

• I used it ever since I became Microsoft MVP
• I Interacted with MVP Lead and several MVPs via MSN Messenger. I gave all my community contributions to my MVP lead via MSN Messenger.
• I used MSN Messenger aggressively while I was writing Community Server Quickly for Packt Publishing. In fact, the entire publishing/editing process was completed from within MSN Messenger.
• I became angry when MSN Messenger got disconnected during a chat with my manager at Packt Publishing.
• I used MSN Messenger in collaboration with my landline telephone to participate in several Microsoft usability studies.

Learnxpress is of the opinion that everything is for good only. It was not a sudden death for MSN Messenger since Microsoft discontinued it in all countries except China in 2013.

It remains to be seen as to when Microsoft will accquire Yahoo Messenger.