Windows Live Messenger to be seamlessly integrated with Windows Phone 7

On the official Windows Live blog, Microsoft recently announced that Messenger will be an integral part of Windows Phone 7 in the future. They mentioned that the next version of Windows Phone (which should be the Mango update) will come with “a seamless, built-in texting and IM experience powered by Windows Live Messenger.” They then went on to elaborate about what Windows Live Messenger on WP7 would be like.

Firstly – it won’t be an app. It will be built into the phone’s Messaging Hub. There’s no need to download a separate app, and no separate experience to navigate – have all your contacts ready for messaging or texting in one location.

It will come with a chat feature, which brings the best features of the desktop client over to the mobile phone. You’ll have emoticons, multiple points of presence, and you’ll be able to chat with all your friends regardless of whether they are on the PC, in Hotmail or on other devices. It will also feature integration with Facebook Chat – no more launching a separate app just to chat with your Facebook friends – do it right from the Messaging Hub instead.

Users will also have the ability to perform seamless switching depending on who they are chatting with. Windows Phone will automatically pick the richest service for both parties to use to chat, but users will have the option of switching to another service manually. Photo sharing, group chat, and voice to text will also be new features of Messaging.

All in all, it makes Windows Phone 7 Mango shape up to be a really sweet upgrade; especially for those who are heavy chatters/texters. Visit the Windows Live blog for more detailed information.

George Wong
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: mango, messenger, Microsoft, Windows Phone 7