It was in the late 90s and social media platforms like MySpace and Facebook did not yet exist. Texting was still in its infancy, as very few people owned a cell phone at that time. Email was a popular method of communication among those with access to a computer, but it lacked the real-time feel that makes in-person conversation so engaging.

For that, you needed an instant messaging program, and when the mainstream internet movement really started to take hold, there were four main competitors vying for the position: AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ, Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger from Microsoft.

Microsoft’s entry was launched on July 22, 1999, which was already late given that ICQ had been around for almost three years and AOL had followed with AIM in the spring of 1997. Even Yahoo’s email client overtook Microsoft’s one in the market for over a year, but as Microsoft has proven, you don’t have to be the first to get to the top.

A key decision at the time was Microsoft’s integration with Hotmail, leveraging the popularity of the company-owned webmail service, to give these millions of users the ability to communicate instantly.

Waging war on AOL

MSN Messenger Service version 1.0 comes with a Spartan feature set including text messaging and a basic contact list. From the start, it caught the attention of its rival AOL because Microsoft had coded MSN Messenger Service to be able to chat with AIM account holders. Needless to say, AOL was not thrilled.

As former AOL engineer Eric Bosco recounts, any messaging service connected to AIM’s network had to provide some type of release. The Microsoft application identified as “MSN Messenger Version 1.0”, so Bosco and the company modified AIM to cut the connection whenever that version tried to connect to its network.

Microsoft responded with an update that allowed MSN Messenger Service to identify itself as AIM. AOL blocked it again, and this back-and-forth battle reportedly took place 21 more times before AOL threatened to inject malicious code into MSN’s network.

Microsoft backed down and ended up partnering with another major player.

Forward and up

Microsoft continued to develop its email client over the following years, slowly but steadily adding new UI elements and features, such as the ability to customize chat windows and facilitate file transfers between users. By early 2001, MSN Messenger Service had more than 29 million unique users worldwide, enough to make it the most widely used instant messaging service in the world according to Microsoft.

With the launch of Windows XP in 2001, Microsoft shortened the name of the program to MSN Messenger. A few years later, the Redmond-based tech giant entered into an interoperability agreement with Yahoo! which would allow users of their respective instant messaging services to chat with each other. Together, this has created the world’s largest mainstream instant messaging community with around 275 million users.

From text chats to a whole world of interactivity, Messenger has finally acquired features like smileys, webcam video chats, sending short audio clips, real-time games with your contacts, and the infamous “nudge.” Which would send out a buzzing ring and shake the chat window to get another user’s attention.

With the launch of the eighth major version of the program, Microsoft again renamed the application, this time changing it to “Windows Live Messenger” to align it with its larger family of Windows Live software and web services.

For a while, it seemed like Microsoft couldn’t do anything wrong with its instant messaging app. But as we all know, the best-laid plans of mice and men often go wrong.

The beginning of the end

With the latest revisions of Windows Live Messenger, Microsoft removed a lot of basic functionality, platform bugs were apparent, and even security was questioned time and time again.

With version 9.0, for example, the company removed several default status options and removed the ability to adjust webcam settings during a video call. Windows Live Messenger 2009 RC saw Microsoft abandon the custom login sound feature.

Things turned from bad to worse in 2012 when Microsoft forced Windows Vista and Windows 7 users to downgrade from an older version of the app to a newer version, and dropped support for Windows XP shortly. soon after. This was around the same time that Microsoft acquired Skype.

The advent of social media and mobile devices could not be ignored either. These technologies offered people new ways to stay in touch with friends and family that didn’t involve a traditional computer.

Although Microsoft released mobile versions of Windows Live for several major platforms, including iOS, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone (and even added integration with Facebook chat), a combination of factors simply took Microsoft out of the messaging game. instant. Eventually they found an exit strategy with Skype, but it didn’t go very well either …

With Skype

In May 2011, Microsoft confirmed that it would be purchasing the Skype telecommunications app for $ 8.5 billion, and in November of the following year, we learned that Messenger would be integrated with Skype.

With the integration, Messenger users could still contact their friends through Skype, but it effectively set the wheels in motion to discontinue the standalone version of Windows Live Messenger. In addition, Skype was very popular and used globally, but in the hands of Microsoft, the development of the program did not flourish.

As sure as the wind blows, Microsoft began phasing out Windows Live Messenger in April 2013. China was the only exception, but eventually the app was also removed from that market on October 31, 2014.

If Microsoft could do it all over again, they probably wouldn’t want Windows to become a major player in the mobile operating systems arena. Likewise, MSN Messenger could have been today’s WhatsApp or Snapchat, but a lack of focus, loss of confidence from its huge user base, and a poorly managed transition to Skype made Messenger land in the graveyard. technological.

The influence of MSN Messenger lingers on Skype and many messaging platforms today, but that’s another story for another time.