Windows Live Messenger Arrives on iPhone

Microsoft has just released a version of the Windows Live Messenger IM software for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. The application is currently available in the US, France, UK and Canadian App Stores.

With this new IM application, you can do more than just chat in real-time with friends. You can also use the app to view and comment on your friends’ status updates from around the social web, including those from Facebook, MySpace and the Windows Live service itself.

You can also see, News Feed-style, what your friends are sharing via other social services like Flickr, YouTube and all the others supported by Windows Live. In order to integrate these additional services into the IM application, you’ll need to set them up here using your Windows Live account.

As far as the IM features themselves, the new app lets you chat, receive messages even if the app is closed, upload and share photos with friends, create photo albums, add captions to photos, access your Hotmail email without leaving the app (read, reply and compose supported) and get email notifications within the app.

The app is available for free in iTunes.