New Windows Live Wave 4 Messenger Preview

The Discussion

• 

  The worst thing with Messenger for me right now is the fact that on Windows 7, if you have a single chat window open, you cant just click on the task bar icon to bring it up. Even if you have the contacts list closed, the windowless messenger 'window' is always there so you always have to hover, wait, and then click the chat window preview. Has that been fixed?

• 

  Any chance I can share a desktop with a friend using Messenger?

• 

  I hope they fix in the new version, meanwhile you can use "Windows Vista SP2 compatibility mode".
  

• 

  There is still it seems no multi-party audio/video conversations like in Skype. I use them all the time. There is no voicemail, although they added video messages. But for those who do not have cameras, voicemail should have been also added as an alternative. How come you add a more advanced feature, whilst you do not offer the less advanced one?

  Messenger Companion is only for Internet Explorer why?

  Messenger Companion allows you to see only comments from your friends. Why don't they make a feature like Google Wiki, where you can see comments from anyone so that one can add annotations to any site and have them appear to the public as a whole through Messenger Companion, instead of it seems only one's friends? Why should I be friends with a commentor to see his contributions?

  Generally, there is nothing revolutionary in this version that is not already offered by at least one of the other competitors' services. It is certainly an improvement but there is nothing innovative.

• 

  The worst thing with Messenger right now is that the advertisements at the bottom, especially hugely annoying Flash advertisements that 1) crashes messenger or 2) uses 50% CPU on each core (and crashes Messenger) or 3) makes hugely annoying sounds and goes big and covers other windows when you accidentally hover the mouse over it. And no. Apatch does not solve the Flash crashing Messenger. It only hides the problem, doesn't make it go away.

• 

  Looks quite powerful actually.  I especially like the photo exploring mode with the ability to comment on specific photos.

• 

  I think that is by design, and I rather like it. Skype 4.2 is the same way now. I think it is badly designed because everyone seems to think it is a bug. And no one can figure out how to close exit the messenger

• 

  50 bucks to chat in hd. Take my money and my bandwidth, sounds like a loose loose.

• 

  i reaaally hate the ads in messanger.. the take up to much space and sometimes they expand and cover up the whole messenger window.. those ads needs to go.. there isnt even an option to pay to make them go away (if there is please tell me, but there shouldnt be any ads at all imo, or atleast they sould be less intrusive)

   

  new features looks great though  

• 

  The ads are annoying, Microsoft should just drop them. Some of their competitors do not use ads.

• 

  Please please please please please please change the following: Currently the preview thumbnails of conversation windows are the whole windows but you can't read any text or make out who you are talking to (except from the text) , please replace the current thumbnail with an image of the persons display picture surrounded by the status color (like it is for your own main windows in Windows 7)

   

  Also, can you still chat non tabbed?
  
  The huge add in 'Social Mode' is to big and the visual adds in conversation windows are kind of a waste of screen space...
  
  How do i become a VIP ? http://windowslivepreview.com/Login?ReturnUrl=%2fhotmail%2flaunch%2f

• 

  I wish they didn't disband the butteryfly group

• 

  this actually looks great ... other than the ads which really sour me on the whole thing.     I really hate the idea of ads in client software, and even looking at websites, ads in Facebook, Bing and Google don't feel nearly as intrusive.  I also think that ads in an IM-like application feel especially bad because it's like they're intruding on you and your friends' social space.

   

  P.S. windowslivepreview is currently giving me ASP.NET errors.  somebody left debugging trace information open to the public, and also apparently the Windows Live team can't figure out Entity Framework 3.5 either ... 

• 

  This does look like a very power app. I don't know if its even fair to call it a messenger anymore because it seems to do so much more than that. Sounds very impressive though

   

  I would like to see a messenger lite version, for those of us who don't want all of that extra stuff. What about enhancements for mobile messaging ?

• 

  Well, I'd argue that Messenger is a very appropriate name. It's just that it now has more services to message with (it's all about message passing between human messengers, the Messenger application and n number of potential data services, social or not...).

  C

• 

  do a search for a-patch ... it can remove the adds and other things. Have been using it for a long time without any issues

• 

  I would really like to see other protocols supported. Facebook and stuff is all nice but right now I use ICQ, GTalk and Messenger this is why I use miranda as a client for all of them. Also I cannot find an option to override the other party's settings. Some people use pink fonts...

• 

  If Messenger had jabber support, and maybe AIM support, it'd be killer.

• 

  I would think in the US it has to have AIM support. Thats the one thing that keeps me from using messenger; everyone I talk to online uses AIM... I've asked for this before on the messenger forum but nobody said anything about it.

• 

  Thats true Charles you do have a point. Maybe something like Live Comunnicator.

  I love to see the advancements that instant messaging is making in general. I would be great if everyone had one base IM protocol and build their own special features on top of that.

  I'd also love to seem mobile IM completly replace SMS (such a rip off)

   

• 

  I spoke with some of the folks on the team. Here are some of the answers to your questions.

  • Any chance I can share a desktop with a friend using Messenger?
    That is already possible in the current Messenger version (remote assistance).
  • There still seems to be no multi-party audio/video conversations like Skype.
    Multiparty audio/video is not in scope for the next version of Messenger but it is something we might provide with future versions. We do think that video messages is a fun feature to stay in touch with the people that matter most to you – even when they’re offline. We don’t try to implement all possible features and scenarios but to prioritize and deliver those that are most relevant and impactful for customers in high quality.
  • (some of the others)
    We are working to provide the best possible user experience for Messenger. Right now it is still too early to talk about specific implementations in the beta.

  More information can be found here:

   http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windowslive/archive/2010/04/28/preview-of-the-new-windows-live-messenger.aspx

   

  Larry

• 

  Look at my comment. a-patch doesn't remove the ads, it merely hides them. This means buggy flash ads will still crash your messenger.

• 

  right click messenger, properties, compatibility, Windows Vista SP2.

• 

  For the problem of the taskbar you could simply use the Shorcut CTRL-CLICK.......then it opens the last window active for the aplication clicked....