Microsoft’s 15-year-old popular Windows Live Messenger aka MSN Messenger will finally retire this October.
Until now, Microsoft had kept the instant messaging service, which was switched off for most users in 2013, alive in China, but with effect from October 31, Windows Live Messenger (MSN) service will come to an end in its last market China as well.
According to BBC, the Redmond began alerting Chinese users of Windows Live’s shutdown on Thursday. The software giant has asked users to switch over to popular VoIP (Voice-over-internet Protocol) service Skype by October 31. Microsoft has also promised free Skype credit to those who migrate over from the messaging service.
MSN Messenger was launched as a simple text chat service in 1999 as Microsoft’s answer to then popular rival AOL’s AIM service and ICQ. The service was added with new features over time such as photo messaging, video calls, games, custom emoticons and a ‘nudge’ function which would shake a friend’s chat window to grab their attention.
It was however in 2012 when Microsoft bought Skype for $8.5 billion (£5.1bn) that Windows Live Messenger lost users in favour of the popular VoIP service which nearly reached 300 million users by the end of 2012.
BBC’s Dave Lee said Windows Live Messenger touched the lives of millions of teenagers who, in an age before real social networking, were just getting accustomed to what it was like to live on the internet. The MSN Messenger initiated a new era – a time when chatting with a classmate no longer meant having a face-to-face conversation, Lee said.
