msnmessengerfeedback

Summary: ProductFeedback about MSN Messenger

Better support for Indic text

Currently, MSN 7.5 does not space out Indic text properly and sometimes fails to show it at all (it shows boxes instead even on a fully Indic compatible Windows XP install). It should also fallback to use the default script font if the current selected font doesn't support Indic text.

Exclude Contacts from current My Status

I would like to have the option to exclude certin users from the current status. For example if I set my status to busy then I also want to be able to exclude that status for that contact or contacts.

Could we have a quick way of seeing you is online rather than having to open the entire messenager window, for example right click > show me whos on line >popup click >click contact I want to speak with.

Also Can we have a way of docking converstaion windows to the right of the screen and have additional converstation windows stack ontop of each other, when a windows is maxmised it will stop at the edge of the stacked converstion windows rather than the edge of the screen.

I hope that makes sense...... Wayne (Kryptos), Updated 01/08/2005

Administrators should not be the ones running MSN Messenger

So why does the iTunes "Now Playing" function only work on administrator accounts? I have tested this, when my user is an administrator, this feature works. When he is a limited user, this feature does not work. Test and see for yourself.

Adolescents are not your only users

Please don't focus on adolescent users at the expense of your other users - sure we don't spend money on avatars but we use IM just as much as they do (albeit more often for work than play). IM is not just for kids ! - RossJ

So a simple method to hide all the nudges, wink & handwriting UI would be appreciated. -- Simo

I agree with RossJ and Simo, something like Office Commicator maybe?

I second this heartily. These childish features such as "winks" and "nudges" have got to stop bloating and cluttering the UI. Even after disabling nudges the exclamation mark at the end of "Teenie Bopper as sent you a Nudge!", trying to make the experience exicting, makes my blood boil. - Avochelm

Animated GIFs

The display feature was a great idea, so why don't you allow to display an animated GIF File? With some restrictions of course. -- HuAsTeKo

I agree, however I would like to see animated GIFs as emoticons much more than animated gif personal images. -- ShadowChaser

It's kind of possible, actually... IF you live in Korea. Please let the world have animated DPs. -- Neotom

MSN Messenger has had animated emoticons and smilies since 6.1 _(Since _when? -Neotom) (and they're one of the reasons why I stopped using it), PLEASE have an option to enable emotions but not to animate them

Update: I've heard from friends that MSNM 7 adds the ability for animated GIFs. I still refuse to downgrade to MSNM 7 though!

Animated Flash Display Pictures

A new function into MSN 7, is that users can BUY animated/dynamic display pictures. But why can't we insert or own made flash animations? That would mean a lot for me. It's not only for fun, but some users like me, can use it for giving information. Like if there is something special to say, or something. Or you just want a picture moving. I earlier contacted msn about this matter, and they told me, that this function wasn't posible yet (yet meaning ever- you weren't around for the MSNM7 private beta -Neotom), becaus of safety and virusses.

But when will this function be added? And, will it be possible to stop animated pictures, if someone creates an annoying picture. --Peterssitje

API

A simple, well documented, event driven API for users to extend the software and implement most of these features ourselves - with Managed Code - RossJ

Update: Don't they already have this? I remember seeing a demo of a Microsoft Product Manager creating a MSN Messenger clone in a short amount of time using .NET 2.0 and the MSN Messenger API. Perhaps they just need better documentation? Try using the object browser.

There is an API support for Windows Messenger which happens to work with MSN Messenger, but it is really limited and I think it's certainly needs an upgrade!!! Please, develop an API just for MSN Messenger, which doesn't require the Windows Messenger in order to work. Also try to extended the API support for scripting languages as it is really limited right now.

I'd like to see an API with support for:

Personal messages
Avatar images
Contact card

and the more the better. I'll really appreciate this.

Audio Clip Streaming

It would be really nice if I could send my current audio stream (from Winamp/iTunes/WMP/Browser) to my friend in a kind of "Listen to this" type way - RossJ

(go into Volume Control, Go to Properties > Recording, and hit Stereo Mix. If you want voice, too, un-mute Microphone in Playback. -Neotom)

Audio Conferencing

Audio/Video conferencing with more than one user (a la iChat) - RossJ

Automatic Translation

It would be really neat if I could get my text translated automatically into the language of the person I am speaking to without having to cut and paste from Babelfish all the time. --RossJ

Branching of conversations.

Want to be able to filter multi-way conversation and then bring them back in line. At the moment I have to open another window directly to the person I want to make a point to, in addition to the window I currently have open --RossJ

Change Preferences

I would like the ability to have a check box or drop down menu on a message window that gives the user the ability to close the text part of messenger when in an audio/video conversation. Also ability to change which side your text or video is on say either left or right or even top and bottom of a message window.

Critical error with Messenger

What could be more critical to a IM app than one that doesn't send messages?

The problem is that occasionally when I send IMs I get a warning message saying "The following message could not be delivered to all recipients:"

Now this error is normally received when you try sending messages to msn users who have gone offline or if the service is unreachable - however now I receive this error message whilst still receiving messages from my contacts for example

John says:
hello

> The following message could not be delivered to all recipients:
Hi John

John says:
hey are you there?

> The following message could not be delivered to all recipients:
er last message failed you get this?

This can happen for one message it can continue to happen for an indefinite length of time with no apparent reason or pattern. It makes conversations irritating at best impossible at worst.

Personally I've only ever has this error with MSN Messenger 7.x though I hear people have had it with version 6.

I'm all for new features etc but this has to be the number one priority. I've experience this problem a lot from different PCs at different locations with different Passport accounts the only commonality appears to be the MSN client itself - especially as Window Messenger does not appear to exhibit this behaviour.

I contacted MSN support who gave me a fairly generic troubleshooter reply letter so I'll mention the points they did:

- Your contact exited MSN Messenger. Your contact appears offline in your contact list.
> No they are still able to send to me - or even share games, files and webcam
- Your contact was disconnected from the .NET Messenger Service because of a temporary network or Internet issue. The contact may appear to be online.
>Again no
- You may have enabled direct IM in MSN Messenger.
> I read this but I turned off the option in 7.0 and the option appears to be greyed out in 7.5
- Excessive Internet traffic.
> I have done some bandwidth tests and this is not the reason - plus the same setup has operating perfectly till recently at several different locations
- A third-party firewall application is filtering instant messages you are sending.
> I do not use a third party firewall
- Firewall or Network Address Translators (NATs) not configured properly for instant messaging.
>well this seems unlikely when they did before and other services are available

I've had several friends describe the exact same symptoms and if you look around you can see it across the web...

For example: http://weblogs.asp.net/dneimke/archive/2005/01/13/351668.aspx

The above site suggests it is the handwriting feature causing the error but I have been unable to send handwriting at the same time so I'm not sure if this is the case. Finally I do have the techincal report log for a short conversation in which this error occured (litrally two messages one sent one didn't) which is available on request.

I don't know how widespread this is, but everyone I know seems to have had it at least once and some people can barely use msn becasue of it -and most of them don't knwo about MSN support or Channel 9 in order to complain.

Sorry for such a long entry but it really is killing Messenger for me - I hope somebody reads this who can help.

Default Browser

When you try to open your Hotmail account using the link in MSN Messenger it opens in IE regardless of your default browser. This worked in previous versions but has since been broken so it's clearly techinically possible it's just a matter of passing the URL to the right place.

E-mail Notifications

The toasts that we get when we have a new e-mail(s) in our Hotmail inbox should contain more information. They should include for example the sender of the mail and the subject. Or, allow me to choose what information about the e-mail(s) they will show. Just telling me "You have 1 new e-mail" is not useful, since it gives me no clue on how important is that e-mail and if I have to wait for my Hotmail inbox to load or whether it is better to go read it some other time. Including sender and/or subject info will help me decide. (Like the new Google Notifier?)

Error Messages

During a recent outage when I tried to log in I was told "We are unable to sign you in ..... possibly because of a problem with YOUR internet connection....." (Emphasis mine)
Now to the "average" user that it going to send them off in all sorts of directions, calling their ISPs checking for rogue diallers etc.

If they are savey enough to know to look in the Help menu of all places to check their service status they were then presented with a page of asp.net error messages furthering their paranoia.

There should be a more granular error trap that informs users if the cause is really their connection or a service outage. If there is a service outage then the service status should be clear and meaningful never an Asp.net error page.

Another very confusing error message is the one displayed if you accidentally add a space to the end of your email address when logging on. A trim would fix the special case of a leading or trailing space, but specific messages about exactly what is wrong with the address can be written to cover most cases. --TheFawther

Express myself -- TanNg

Combining the ideas of Blog, Status and social networking, I would like MSN messenger to add QuickExpresion feature like that:
* Allow me to show several short blasts (yahoo360 blast) or status (with permission control) to my buddies ALTOGETHTER including: status, some my new blog artical, new photo, link, music, ....
* My friend can choose to see the snipset of my message or expand at his wish.
Sorry for my bad enligsh, could not explain it better.

Features should be optional, not enforced

One of the main things about Microsoft upgrades that annoys me the most, is when you want something changed, you need to upgrade, but when you upgrade, you can't temporarily turn a feature off. One such example is the "(Online)" suffix appended to every contact on the list in Windows Messenger 5.0 and above, cluttering the display.

Idiot Mode, MSN Messenger 6: I should never have to tell an application to close more than once. I have a slow computer, so often I try to kill MSN to free up a little oompf. Typically I click on the taskbar and "close group". MSN goes to the system tray. I explicitly told it to close - I wasn't confused about it, so why should MSN be? The next time I try to close, I try the other method open to me: right clicking and exiting from the system tray. Only, again, MSN is confused and "warns" me that all conversation windows will be closed when I exit. Gee, really, in the many years that I've used this product every day of the week, I'd forgotten. This results in enough frustration that I have had tantrums.

Either:

MSN has an option so I can make it close when I tell it to
I can select to "never warn me about this message again" when being told about all windows being closed
Both.

File Transfer Bug (Maybe)

When trying to send a big file over MSN (200 mb), Messenger freezes for a long time, before it starts to send the file. When I look at the taskmanager, it seems that Messenger has got the crazy idea of loading the entire file into memory (pagefile), and then removing it from memory, and then start sending it. It seems silly to read the entire file into memory, remove it from memory, and read it again while sending it.

File Transfer UI

Can we have a separate UI space (maybe in empty space between two display pictures) to show us the transfer progress of our file transfer? It is very troublesome to monitor the transfer progress as we have to scroll up in the chat window to see how far has the transfer go, while the chat itself can be very very long already. Maybe we can put a separate bar of around 10 pixels on top of the status bar?

File Transfer Security System

The file transfer security system really needs to change. The way it blocks harmless files based on the file extension is folly. MPEG and MP3 files are very rarely malicious and the way the user agent deletes the files after wasting your bandwidth is aggravating. I call for options in the security tab for unobstructed file transfers with a warning of the associated dangers. Having these options hidden in the registry opens the door for unaware users downloading possibly malicious plugins to change them. I do not see why users with a clue should suffer with a locked-down transfer system because of other clueless users.

Furthermore, I also call for better integration, similar to mail-clients, with popular virus scanners such as AVG and Norton AV. -- Avochelm

File Transfer Speeds

I find file transfers in MSN Messenger on my 1Mbit upload to my friend's 1Mbit download to be slow (8Kbytes/sec). Downloads via HTTP/FTP go at hundreds of KBytes per second on my connection (my download is 10Mbit), uploads via FTP go very quickly and AIM's transfers to my friend are much faster (56KBytes/sec). The same is true from my friend's connection even through his is a litte slower (no where close to how slow MSN Messenger is). I would like to see file transfers transfer faster. -- Shining Arcanine

Update: This is not a bug, it's a feature. The reason the transfer is slow is because both users are behind a gateway or firewall. In normal situations you would not be able to send ANY files. MSN Messenger has a feature that allows low bandwidth file transmissions to be sent through their server to the end user. The reason it is slow is Microsoft doesn't want the MSN servers being bogged down by 10,000 people sending 600 meg files at 8 mbit/s!

Peer-to-peer-like programs seem to get it right. Perhaps passive transfers is the answer?

Or a torrent-lie approach -- Robert Wetzlmayr

File Transfer to Multiple Users

I want to be able to send files to multiple users efficiently (sending 4Mb file between two users on 2Mb connections takes far too long).

Update: This is a networking restriction. Apart from multicast IP, you cannot send a file to two users and not have it take twice as long! Simply not possible apart from rebuilding the Internet from scratch!

Integration

When I try and exit MSN messenger at work it says "MSN is being used by another program" and does not allow me to exit. I do not understand why this is in Messenger. If the user wants to exit, they want to exit, they don't care what other program is using MSN. I don't want to shut down programs untill Messenger can exit, and I don't want to google and find out which programs may cause this problem. Maybe the dialog can be changed to "Exiting MSN at this time will cause [program] to no longer have access to your contacts, exit anyway?"

Integration MSN IM with WDS/Desk Bar and Widgets

Make a suit of software that integrates WDS, Windows Live Search, MSN Messenger, Deskbar and Gadgets. It will allow you use MSN Messenger power to distribute others products to millions people. Users like me also benefit from having single place to access all kind of online services provided by MSN. -- TanNg

Interoperability

When are we going to see the 3 major messenger services interoperate? Please work towards interoperability between MSN, AOL and Yahoo! Messenger, as well as other clients. If full interoperability is hard, at least make instant messaging work across these 3 services. Propose and work hard on an IM standard.

I think we've only agreed to do this for corporate messaging. The big three vendors still want to lock in customers to their own clients and advertising streams -- JonathanHardwick

One of the three big providers is Microsoft! We are here because we are hoping that Microsoft is changing its attitude. - Nektar.

Would it be at all possible to get interop if we agreed to pay an annual subscription for a premium version (which also killed the adverts while we're at it)? MSN Messenger is a really nice program, but it's simply not reasonable to expect everyone to use the same thing and/or use all the different clients. It's like back in the days where you could only by phones from AT&T. -- BryanF

Invitation Prompts

Sometimes people abruptly drag me into a conversation with a dozen people (some of which I have blocked for one reason or another), which I find to be an unblockable annoyance. Sometimes when I leave a conversation, I'm dragged back in and I'm left with no choice but to log out of MSN Messenger.

Therefore I would like the option (a check box in MSN Messenger's options) of having a prompt appear when being invited to an existing conversation. Perhaps it could have a drop down menu with options (in the even that you deny the invitation) such as "Block once", "Block invitations for 5 minutes, "block invitations for 10 minutes, "block invitations for 15 minutes" with "Block once" being the default. This would prevent someone from nagging a person by sending mutiple invitations. The ability to block them completely (in MSN Messenger's options; if you added this, you would want to use radio buttons instead of check boxes) would also be nice. -- Shining Arcanine

Just "Yes" or "No" would be fine... Block for 5 minutes? WTF? --Neotom

Perhaps it'd be nice to be prompted if you wish to join a conversation that includes blocked members? --AlexM

IRC-style conversations

Perhaps the next revision of the client and protocl (MSNC8 and MSN10P respectivly) should allow for both a "long name" (the current system), as well a short... (12 char max) "IRC-style" 'nick name that can only be changed every hour or so (to prevent uber-annoying name spam), and to allow conversations to be displayed in IRC format, where the 12 letter long 'nick is shown inline with the message

Sort of added in 7 --Neotom

Logging of Handwritten Messages

If I use my TabletPC to ink an instant message, it doesn't get logged. This limits how much I can use my TabletPC in a business environment (where logging is important). --msemack

Menu available while window frame is hidden

I like the fact that the window frame can be hidden in the conversation window and (in Messenger 7) in the contact list window. But sometimes I'd still like to be able to access the menu, but without showing the window frame accessing the menu, and the hiding it again. The solution is there in Windows Media Player 10: there when you hide the frame, an arrow appears left to the window manipulation buttons (Minimize and such), where if you click, you get a context menu, with the menus inside it (and also an option to show the window frame). In WMP10, the same context menu appears, if you right-click at the top of the window (at the mock title bar). --Szajd

Why aren't all custom-skinned Microsoft programs working like the WMP10 title system? It's perfect. --Neotom

Message Formatting

Just insert some IRC-like commands, like Messenger Plus does. For example: you only need to type "/nick i love the new MSN" and the ability to create such commands on your own. Maybe just a simple .txt where you can create new commands and specify their functions. That is of course not for every user, so just do a .txt file in the MSN Folder and who wants do to that, is able to. -- value

This isn't really going to happen... too many "home/family" users will "try" to use this feature and end up breaking their client, causing an excessive amount of support emails to MSN/Microsoft

Allow messages to be formatted as code. That is to say, DON'T INSERT EMOTICONS! Maybe a tag at the start that is stripped at the other end. -- Manip

Additionally lose, or give an option to turn off the emoticon autocomplete in the editor pane - I always type opening and closing brackets first then step back into the brackets - with the latest version this turns the intial letter and brackets into a emoticon! --AlexM

I second this suggestion, perhaps add a <pre> type tag? - Ravedave

Would like to be able to paste in formatted HTML and keep formatting, file upload of partial HTML if necessary, as long as I don't have to do it manually - RossJ

Maybe just keep it in a GUI a la Word, but I second (third?) formatting. -- Neotom

Message Logs Browser

A small button, straight in the conversation window to open the last dialogues would be great.

Messenger Service Available Through The Web

Make the .NET Messenger Service accessible through a web site and not only from the Messenger client. In this way we could chat from any computer with a browser, like from a cafe.

Try http://webmessenger.msn.com - which does exactly what you're asking, there are a few additional third party clients as well --AlexM

MSN Chat Logs Should include the email addresses of each user

When working on a small hobby-project i Visual Basic, a program that should make it possible organize chat logs and perform simple queries, I found that the MSN XML-logs has some minor problems; they don't specify the email of each user in a chat logs. Without an email adress - which is the only static identification-string I could rely on fully - it is very hard, if not impossible, to link each user to all messages in all sessions, simply because the nicknames often changes and thus rarely match. I've tried to base the program's judgment upon the file name, including the nickname and email address of the current user, but this method fails dramatically when it comes to multiple user conversations.

A possible solution to this problem could be to add a email-property of each user-element in the log-file, or to, if saving space is necessary, having a email-list at the begining and link each user to this link by IDs.

Also, since the log-files is in the XML-format, I don't think such a change would result in compatibility problems. When using a decent XML-parser, a program would hardly recognize a extra property or element. -- aadnk

MSN Spaces

Better notification of MSN Spaces updates; as well as showing the star in the main window inform the user in chat windows if a new update with the person they are currently chatting with has updated their space. --lukes

Modal Dialogs Suck

Honestly, they were a bad idea from the invention of the GUI. An application should never lock up until I acknowledge something, especially if that means I might have to bring the application into focus and deal with it. Inline error messages, like the security warnings in IE or Firefox, would be far, far less intrusive.

Names - Let us Color Them

In a conversation with multiple people it can get a little disorienting if everyone has the same font. Add an option so I can set the color of people's names to help distinguish who's saying what. -- Sk4rlath

Notification

Sometimes when my net connection is slow, like most of my computer, MSN takes its time to sign in. In fetching the online contacts, it gets confused - instead of only me logging in and notifying them, it pretends that all of my contacts have logged in and notifies me. That's the most annoying bug ever, as it interrupts me during other applications.

A separate, unrelated issue: the ability to turn off flashing in my taskbar for certain people. I talk to many annoying people, and I would just LOVE to be able to not drop what I'm doing in order to get a... "hi". No, blocking isn't an option either.

There is a problem with dialogs from MSN messenger flashing in the taskbar indefinitely instead of the default 5 times. -- ZippyV

My Display Name

Myself and a lot of people I work with use the 'My Display Name' field to show contextual information about ourselves - usually where we physically are, which office, country we are in etc and we all find this invaluable as value added display info. The only issue is that you cannot change this information unless you are online so if you finish up working in one location and then sign in to Messenger at another location your toast will pop up for your online contacts showing your last location display name info. You can hastily change it once online but the impact from the toast is lost...surely not a tricky one to fix? -- Peeros

Maybe you could implement this sort of thing into the Contact Card? I'm so sick of these "Jack - www.jackist3hawexomor.com" names. --Neotom

Update: MSN Messenger 7 includes an additional status field that you can easily set -- JonathanHardwick

And thank you so much for it! --Neotom

But you still can't turn it off if you don't care about what music someone is playing!

Order Contacts By...

You can organize your contacts by group or by online/offline status, but not both at the same time. Allowing users to view only online contacts and organize them by groups at the same time would be nice -- vitorsouza

It is possible to show your contacts in groups and group the offline ones in an other one. For this, there's a checkable item in the Contacts menu, to group offline contacts. --Szajd

Outlook integration

Better Outlook integration. For example, how do we find out from within Office Outlook which of our contacts are online and which ones are offline? Currently, there is no easy way to sort contacts like this. Not only that but Office Outlook integration with MSN Messenger v7.0 is temperamental. Sometimes the New Instant Message menu item under the Actions menu is unavailable, or other times when right-clicking a contact e-mail it asks you to add it to MSN Messenger even though the contact is already added in Messenger. Or, when right-clicking a contact in the contacts folder there is no Send an Instant Message option, let alone the fact that the IM Address field in the contact details box does not auto-complete and is ordinarily left empty even though you may have added an e-mail address for that contact. Anyway, even worse is Outlook Express which has no MSN Messenger integration. With MSN Messenger and Outlook integration it seems to get worse with each release.
Also, why can't we have a single addressbook? Currently, Office Outlook contacts and MSN Messenger contacts are different databases making life doubly difficult.

If I'm not mistaken, hasn't Outlook 2003 implemented MSNM integration? --Neotom

Personal Tag Line or Message

Provide a way for users to enter silly comments or "messages of the day" for their accounts that will show up under their name in a chat window. Why? Most of the people on my list want to put silly phrases or things (Or friggin' song lyrics - ugh... I'm so sick of emos putting their favorite Linkin Park lyrics in their names - Neotom) into their names, making it confusing! Giving them a location to put these useless messages would get it off of the main list :) -- ShadowChaser

As I said before, let these people throw this stuff on their contact card. --Neotom

I'm surprised this hasn't been implemented already - I would venture a guess that 80% of MSN Messenger users put a tag line in their contact names. And yes, the contact card would be a good place to do it. I would also like to see the ability to do a separate tag line per group - for example, I might want to tell my co-workers: "I'm at the design meeting - I'll be back at 3:30." and at the same time have my friends see, "Got a new digital camera - woot!". --jdunlap

Update: Added in MSN Messenger 7 (both the status message and the all-important what's-playing :) -- JonathanHardwick
highlighted stuff you didn't do --Neotom

Yes, but it's still in the main list, which accomplishes nothing. There is no way to turn this off! I don't care what people are listening to or what their favorite quote is! (And then what happens? People say, "I want EVERYBODY to see this" and just throw everything back into their names. Just deal with it and remember it could always be worse. --Neotom)

I disagree. They would let me remove the annoying tags AND offer a "local" rename feature that overrides their awful confusing names. And yes, it is worse. Now people STILL keep renaming their names in addition to having another spot to spam useless info into.

Proper message receipt checks

Again, another feature requiring a possible overhaul of the MSN9P protocol. But right now there's no real way for the client to check if a message has been received or not, spare for an artificially long receipt-response timeout. You could reduce this down to 5 seconds without any ill effects)

Proper NAT Traversal

I cannot see the point in redirecting all NAT traffic through the Messenger switchboard servers, it slows down file-transfers to a halt and prevents audio communication. I occasionally have problems with video too

"All in the name of security", shielding the IP address of another messenger user doesn't prevent the other person from finding it out, especially if non-NAT or UPnP-NAT traffic reveals the IP address anyway

Sorry, but you're completely wrong. You can't send packets via magic - they need an open destination port to work. If Microsoft didn't have their switchboard servers there would be NO file tranfers between users that are both behind NATs! It's how the Internet works, you cannot change it!

Remember Sent Files

I often send files via MSN Messenger, and it's annyoing that if i dont drag and drop the files on the conversation window, i have to click trough all the folders where my files are. Just make it remember the last used folder.

Rename Users

Everyone has encountered people who use their MSN name as a personal "tag line" or "message of the day". It makes it extremely confusing to figure out who is who after awhile, when they rename themselves every day or two! I desperately need a way to "locally" rename the user into something more useful, like their real name! -- ShadowChaser

I think this would be nice, along with adding an option to display e-mails after all names. --Neotom

I use Messenger Plus to do this... -- JonathanHardwick

Some of us would rather not MWMM and just have it in the full client. --NeoTOM

Send Instant Picture

When you send a picture to someone, a preview of that picture is shown in the chat log. It would be nice if we could also send a picture directly as if it were a preview instead of having to send the whole file (something like the custom emoticons, but big-sized). The maximum size could be predefined, maybe 128x128, so the picture would be stretched automatically to fit that. -- RicarDog

Another way to do this - make it possible to display the picture in the conversation once it downloads.

There is "MSN Photo Swap" under "Fun & Games" to do (some of) this, but it's very buggy and not very good.

Spell Checker

I would like the Office spellchecker to be built in and bound to a key (like Outlook Express). For people with poor spelling like me it would be very helpful and save some embarrassment. -- Manip

Status - Custom Messages

The ability to set custom status messages instead of just "Out to lunch" or "On Phone". Or, at least, the ability to set a reason for your "away" status. -- RicarDog

I know this would require an overhaul of the MSN9P Protocol, but I am rather limited in the field of self-expression with only 5 "statues" to choose from (Away, Busy, Phone, Lunch, BRB), I'd much prefer it to define my own status, because at times I'm neither, such as "Breakfast" ;)

This is how I'd do it - Allow creation of new statuses, along with the preset ones in the same options form (with Remove grayed out, and with a Return to Default button only enabled with them). Allow rules as to what triggers (and untriggers) the status (typing, eg typing (brb) will display the BRB Emoticon and set to BRB, while becoming active will return to normal), things that can happen by status (set up away messages) and set rank by order. Select base type (of standard statuses(?) for previous versions), name, and emoticon (includes custon, but not animated). -- Neotom

Update: Custom messages have been added in MSN Messenger 7 -- JonathanHardwick
Did you read this suggestion at all? Personal Message != Status --Neotom
Yes, but you're asking for a power-user feature -- grandma don't use no triggers or rules. MSN Messenger has an installed base in the hundreds of millions. If you want the kitchen sink, install Messenger Plus. -- JonathanHardwick

Some IM programs have (like e-mail settings for when you go on holiday) custom away messages that instantly pop up on the screen of the person who's trying to bother you while your status is set on Away. You can do multiple canned messages; just choose according to the situation. This way, all the same statuses remain, but at least there's a reason for anyone who's poking. -- ellecue

Status - For Different Groups

It would be good to be able to set how my status applies itself, i.e. for everyone for groups or for particular individuals. Then I can appear in different statuses for different users e.g work = online, friends=busy etc. See above to be able to set a default for each group/user/type, each inheriting from the one above if none is set. -- EvilWeeble

Add the ability to set your visible status per groups of users. So you can set 'appear offline' for one group while leaving it normal for everyone else. -- Manip

I agree. Multiple status should be allowed. I might wish to appear online, only to a particular user and offline to all others. That would be cool.

It's called "blocking" ;) - maybe a Block Group command? --Neotom

Blocking a certain group of users isn't a suitable substitute IMO. With "status-by-group" you would also be able to do "Busy" or "Away" or whatever - for example, you might want to let people in a certain group know that you are busy so that they know to only contact you if they need to say something urgent. This can't be done using "block group". -- jdunlap

I know- hence the ;)- and that was more a direct response to the preceding comment. --Neotom

Status - Remember Between Logins

Currently, MSN Messenger 7 beta allows us to set our status before logging in. However, there should be an option to make this choice permanent and not having to choose my status every time. An option, like Always sign in as offline, or something similar. - Nektar.

Update: Fixed in MSN Messenger 7 -- JonathanHardwick

Status Should Not Be Accessible to Blocked Contacts

When I block a user, he should not be able to find out if I really blocked him or if I am simply offline at the time. He should not be able to tell if I have actually placed him on my block list. Currently there are special web pages that allow you to find out. It should not be possible to do that.

Fixed in 6.2? --Neotom

Watch out for that social networking though... -- ellecue

More granular control of contacts meaning not just status, but even amounts of information about you as associated through your MSN services. I think this is critical in moving forward in the "Live" era of MSN services. Ideally, this should be done at the individual contact level, but at the very least, by contact group level. Don't want my "Co-Workers" contacts group seeing my MSN Spaces stuff, don't want my "Family" contacts group seeing names associated with my "Friends" contact group in a FOAF scenario like most social networking services. -hillboy8

Tab Removal

I am not talking about the ability to hide all tabs under the privacy option. But allow the showing of and or removal of used and unused tabs. Personally I use the alerts tab and the games tab all the time but do not own enough stock to warrent the use of the finacial tab. I do not shop online nor do I travel very much. The auto tab does not show or is available in the area where I live so those tabs are useless to me. MSNBC tab I only use when there is a big event going on where the press shows it on my local news.

Just the ability to unselect a tab when I do not need that service would be nice. -- redvamp128

Timestamp messages

When a message is received and I am away from the computer, it would be nice to have a timestamp on the message so that I can tell if the message is from 5 minutes ago or from yesterday. -IESucks

At the base of the Chat window is a message stating when the last message was received (there is also a time stamp for each message within message history). -AlexM

AlexM is right. However, adding a "view time stamps" option would be nice, as well as enabling viewing of all things currently shown only in transcripts. --Neotom

Tooltips

Allow at least a registry key that can disable the tooltips throughout the application. I mean, a floating tip that says "This is where you type your message" is a little much. - LukeReeves

I agree, it is so annoying to have the tooltip keep popping up over your groups when you open/close them. It covers up 3 lines of the stuff you are trying to read! "Show the contacts in this group. Right-click to rename/delete this group", etc...please allow us to turn them OFF. - JamesShaw

Virtual Desktop Manager

When using with the Virtual Desktop Manager XP Powertoy, once I change desktop, conversation windows (with the window frame hidden) have strange repaint issues when resizing them.

I can always recreate it by starting with MSVDM toolbar off, then having a conversation window up, then switching on MSVDM toolbar, then switching to a new desktop and back to the original one. At this point, the resize cursors are available both where they should be, but also for a number of pixels above and to the left of the displayed window (where the window frame would normally be). If resizing using this additional area, the bottom and right sides are resized instead. In addition, resizing where you would normally expect to causes the additional space normally taken up by the window frame to not repaint correctly. --theogray_com

Update: Fixed in MSN Messenger 7

Just a note: Microsoft doesn't support Powertoys.

I don't know if the problem was fixed in MSN Messenger 7, but I used MSN Messenger 7.5 and now I use Messenger 8.0 (Windows Live Messenger), and I still have this problem. Basically, if I change desktops and then back again, there is an area below the menu bar in conversation windows which opens up, meaning that I can see a copy of what is behind the conversation window in that area. This means that the conversation part of the window gets smaller. As I keep changing desktops, this shrinks and shrinks until it is completely invisible. I am using Windows XP Professional SP2. --Kidburla

Webcam conversation fullscreen mode

When having a webcam conversation it would be nice to have a fullscreen mode, so you could see your contact's webcam on fullscreen. -- fdezjose

Although it would look awful (MSNM sends maybe a 300 x 200 stream, this isn't the movies), I don't see why not if you're just doing a video conversation.

Windows Messenger

MSN Messenger v6 and higher can successfully traverse in most cases non-UPnP NAT devices and firewalls. Windows Messenger does not seem to have the same non-UPnP traversal intelligence and connection troubleshooting built into it as MSN Messenger. Why not? Also, when are you going to deal with the confusion between the two products! -- nektar

You'll notice that a lot of the requests on this page are grievances towards the "Easy to use" UI and associated features, like "fun and games". Whilst those of us who don't want these features run WM 4.7 and 5.1, some of us need the more essential features provided only in MSN Messenger, such as the webcam support, audio conferencing, and NAT Traversal. We hope you're planning of continuing the Windows Messenger product line and its compatibility with MSN Messenger, for your sake as much as ours (think: enterprise customers).

How about basing WM 6.0 off the MSN8C code (when that gets completed), that way we can be assured of feature compatibility, right now... being a WM 4.7 user, I cannot receive webcam or audio feeds from individuals using MSN6C

Other

Everyone has been begging for offline messaging and the rationale I've heard Microsoft provide is that offline messaging would draw away from their Hotmail service. I think offline messaging and a voicemail feature (like Yahoo! Messenger's) would both be great to add, so why not use Hotmail as the vehicle of delivery for offline messages and voicemail messages. I suppose then it would only work with those who use their Hotmail as their Passport to logon to MSN Messenger though. Each offline IM might be denoted by the MSN Messenger green buddy icon where an email evenlope might appear, and for voicemail a telephone handset icon would appear instead. When you sign in to Messenger you'd still get message notifications via toast like you currently do, click the link be taken to your Hotmail inbox and see your email, offline IM and voicemail all in one box. Finally, a universal inbox, and you're driving traffic INTO Hotmail to be able to use these great extra features of offline IM and voicemail. I created a (admittedly poor quality) mock screenshot on my MSN Spaces site /members/hillboy8. Offline IM and voicemail with Hotmail as the delivery vehicle. I think it's a great idea.

As I understand it, offline messaging will be a feature of Messenger 8 (Windows Live Messenger) - steve.net

Don't add stuff here at the end - scroll up and find the right place for it in the alphabetical list -- JonathanHardwick