Messenger (formerly MSN Messenger Service,Microsoft Launches MSN Messenger Service
/ref> .NET Messenger Service and Windows Live Messenger Service) was an

instant messaging Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of online chat allowing real-time text transmission over the Internet or another computer network. Messages are typically transmitted between two or more parties, when each user inputs text and trigge ...

and

presence Presence may refer to: Technology * Presence (sound recording), also known as room tone * Presence (amplification), used in four band equalisation * Presence (telepresence), the scientific and technological field * Immersion (virtual reality ...

system developed by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...

in 1999 for use with its

MSN Messenger MSN Messenger (also known colloquially simply as "Messenger"), later rebranded as Windows Live Messenger, was a cross-platform instant-messaging client developed by Microsoft. It connected to the Microsoft Messenger service and, in later versio ...

software. It was used by

instant messaging clients Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of online chat allowing real-time text transmission over the Internet or another computer network. Messages are typically transmitted between two or more parties, when each user inputs text and trigg ...

including

Windows 8 Windows 8 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on August 1, 2012; it was subsequently made available for download via MSDN and TechNet on August 15, 2012, and later to ...

Windows Live Messenger MSN Messenger (also known colloquially simply as "Messenger"), later rebranded as Windows Live Messenger, was a cross-platform instant-messaging client developed by Microsoft. It connected to the Microsoft Messenger service and, in later versio ...

Microsoft Messenger for Mac MSN Messenger (also known colloquially simply as "Messenger"), later rebranded as Windows Live Messenger, was a cross-platform instant messaging client, instant-messaging client developed by Microsoft. It connected to the Microsoft Messenger ser ...

, Outlook.com and

Xbox Live The Xbox network, formerly and still sometimes branded as Xbox Live, is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft. It was first made available to the Xbox system on November 15, 2002. An u ...

. Third-party clients also connected to the service. It communicated using the Microsoft Notification Protocol, a proprietary instant messaging protocol. The service allowed anyone with a

Microsoft account A Microsoft account or MSA (previously known as Microsoft Passport, .NET Passport, and Windows Live ID) is a single sign-on Microsoft user account for Microsoft customers to log in to Microsoft services (like Outlook.com), devices running on ...

to sign in and communicate in real time with other people who were signed in as well. On 11 January 2013 Microsoft announced that they were retiring the existing Messenger service globally (except for mainland China where Messenger will continue to be available) and replacing it with Skype. In April 2013, Microsoft merged the service into

Skype Skype () is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for VoIP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also has instant messaging, file transfer, ...

network; existing users were able to sign into Skype with their existing accounts and access their contact list. As part of the merger, Skype instant messaging functionality is now running on the backbone of the former Messenger service.

Background

Despite multiple name changes to the service and its client software over the years, the Messenger service is often referred to colloquially as "

MSN MSN (meaning Microsoft Network) is a web portal and related collection of Internet services and apps for Windows and mobile devices, provided by Microsoft and launched on August 24, 1995, alongside the release of Windows 95. The Microsoft Net ...

", due to the history of

. The service itself was known as MSN Messenger Service from 1999 to 2001, at which time, Microsoft changed its name to .NET Messenger Service and began offering clients that no longer carried the "MSN" name, such as the Windows Messenger client included with

Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was release to manufacturing, released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Wind ...

, which was originally intended to be a streamlined version of MSN Messenger, free of advertisements and integrated into Windows. Nevertheless, the company continued to offer more upgrades to MSN Messenger until the end of 2005, when all previous versions of MSN Messenger and Windows Messenger were superseded by a new program,

, as part of Microsoft's launch of its

Windows Live Windows Live is a discontinued brand name for a set of web services and software products developed by Microsoft as part of its software-as-a-service platform. Chief components under the brand name included web services (all of which were expose ...

online services. For several years, the official name for the service remained .NET Messenger Service, as indicated on its official network status web page,Check the Microsoft .NET Messenger Service status
/ref> though Microsoft rarely used the name to promote the service. Because the main client used to access the service became known as

, Microsoft started referring to the entire service as the Windows Live Messenger Service in its support documentation in the mid-2000s.Microsoft Help and Support: Important changes to Windows Live Messenger
/ref> The service can integrate with the

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...

, automatically and simultaneously signing into the network as the user logs into their Windows account. Organizations can also integrate their Microsoft Office Communications Server and

Active Directory Active Directory (AD) is a directory service developed by Microsoft for Windows domain networks. It is included in most Windows Server operating systems as a set of processes and services. Initially, Active Directory was used only for centr ...

with the service. In December 2011, Microsoft released an

XMPP Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP, originally named Jabber) is an open communication protocol designed for instant messaging (IM), presence information, and contact list maintenance. Based on XML (Extensible Markup Language), ...

interface to the Messenger service. As part of a larger effort to rebrand many of its

services, Microsoft began referring to the service as simply Messenger in 2012.

Software

Official clients

Microsoft offered the following instant messaging clients that connected to the Messenger service: *

, for users of

Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, 2009. It is the successor to Windows Vista, released nearl ...

and previous versions ** MSN Messenger was the former name of the client from 1999 to 2006 ** Windows Messenger is a scaled-down client that was included with

in 2001 *

, for users of

Mac OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

* Outlook.com includes

web browser A web browser is application software for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's screen. Browsers are used on ...

-based functionality for instant messaging **

Hotmail Outlook.com is a webmail service that is part of the Microsoft 365 product family. It offers mail, calendaring, contacts, and tasks services. Founded in 1996 by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith as Hotmail, it was acquired by Microsoft in 19 ...

, the predecessor to Outlook.com, includes similar functionality for Messenger ** Windows Live Web Messenger was a web-based program for use through

Internet Explorer Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Internet Explorer, commonly abbreviated IE or MSIE) is a series of graphical user interface, graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft which was used in the Microsoft Wind ...

** MSN Web Messenger was the former name of the web-based client *

, includes a built-in Messaging client *

includes access to the Messenger service from within the Xbox Dashboard *

MSN TV MSN TV (formerly WebTV) was a web access product consisting of a thin client device that used a television for display (instead of using a computer monitor), and the online service that supported it. The device design and service was developed ...

(formerly WebTV) had a built-in messaging client available on the original WebTV/MSN TV and MSN TV 2 devices, which was originally introduced via a Summer 2000 software update * Messenger on Windows Phone includes access to the Messenger service from within a phone running

Windows Phone Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and Zune. Windows Phone featured a new user interface derived from the Metro design lan ...

* Windows Live Messenger for iPhone and iPod Touch includes access to the Messenger service from within an iPhone,

iPod Touch The iPod Touch (stylized as iPod touch) is a discontinued line of iOS-based mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. with a touchscreen-controlled user interface. As with other iPod models, the iPod Touch can be used as a music pl ...

iPad The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operati ...

* Windows Live Messenger for Nokia includes access to the Messenger service from within a

Nokia phone HMD Global Oy, branded as HMD and Nokia Mobile, is a Finnish mobile phone manufacturer. The company is made up of the mobile phone business that Nokia sold to Microsoft in 2014, then bought back in 2016. HMD began marketing Nokia-branded smar ...

* Messenger Play! includes access to the Messenger service from within an Android phone or tabletGet Messenger on your smartphone—it’s easy and it’s free!
Retrieved 7 September 2012 * Windows Live Messenger for BlackBerry includes access to the Messenger service from within a

BlackBerry The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus''. The taxonomy of ...

Third-party clients

Additionally, these third-party clients and others were able to access the Messenger service: *

Adium Adium is a free and open source instant messaging client for macOS that supports multiple IM networks, including Google Talk and XMPP. In the past, it has also supported AIM, ICQ, Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger. Adium is written usin ...

(Mac OS X, GPL) * aMSN (multi-platform, GPL) *

Ayttm Ayttm (pronounced "item" or "A-Y-T-T-M") is a multi-protocol instant messaging client. It is the heir of the EveryBuddy project. Features Services Ayttm primarily supports one-to-one and group chatting on MSN, Yahoo!, ICQ, AIM, XMPP and IRC. ...

(multi-platform, GPL) * BitlBee (Windows and Unix-like, GPL) * CenterIM (cross-platform, GPL) * emesene (multi-platform, GPL) *

Empathy Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference, that is, the capacity to place oneself in another's position. Definitions of empathy encompass a broad range of social, cog ...

(Linux GNOME, GPL) * eBuddy (Web-based and mobile) *

Fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction Product (chemistry), products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition ...

(Mac OS X, GPL) *

(any client supporting XMPP protocol can use transports to connect to the Messenger service) *

Kopete Kopete is a multi-protocol, free software instant messaging client released as part of the KDE Software Compilation. Although it can run in numerous environments, it was designed for and integrates with the KDE Plasma Workspaces. Kopete was starte ...

(Linux KDE, GPL) *

Meebo Meebo (often stylized as meebo) was an instant messaging and social networking service provider. It was founded in September 2005 by Sandy Jen, Seth Sternberg, and Elaine Wherry, and was based in Mountain View, California. Initially the company o ...

(Web-based) * Meetro (multi-platform, proprietary) * Miranda NG (Windows, GPL) *

Pidgin A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified means of communication that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn from s ...

(formerly Gaim) (multi-platform, GPL) * tmsnc (multi-platform, text based) * Trillian (multi-platform, Web, proprietary) *

Yahoo! Messenger Yahoo! Messenger (sometimes abbreviated Y!M) was an advertisement-supported instant messaging client and associated protocol provided by Yahoo!. Yahoo! Messenger was provided free of charge and could be downloaded and used with a generic "Yahoo I ...

(multi-platform, proprietary)

Criticism

Microsoft Messenger has been criticized for the use of the Microsoft Notification Protocol, which does not provide any

encryption In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding information. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plaintext, into an alternative form known as ciphertext. Ideally, only authorized parties can dec ...

. This makes wiretapping personal conversations in Messenger possible if someone intercepts the communication, which is easy in unencrypted public

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio w ...

networks.

References

External links

MSN Messenger protocol documentation

MSNPiki (protocol wiki)

Skype replaces Microsoft Messenger for online calls
{{Instant messaging .NET Instant messaging protocols Windows communication and services