Stefan Mileschin

Software giant Microsoft has decided to replace its Windows Live Messenger software with Skype.

According to the Verge, Microsoft's Voles are working towards retiring its Windows Live Messenger client in the coming months. The software's functions will be integrated into Skype.

Apparently Microsoft has slowly been moving Skype people over to the Messenger back end over the past few months.

If you have been using Skype more than 80 percent of those instant messages were processed on Vole's back end.

It is expected that Vole will announce the retirement of Windows Live Messenger soon, possibly as early as this week.

Skype is peer to peer which means that messages could be sent only when both parties were online - with Skype is running on Messenger's servers that problem has gone away.

While Messenger was available from any computer, you only had to be logged into your Live account via any browser. Skype required a desktop client which led to problems on Mac and Linux with bad updates or lack of updates. Now that's solved when Skype is moved to Outlook.com.

Practically, what this means is that the two best bits of the software will be merged. Skype was better at calls while Messenger handled messaging better.

The biggest challenge has been to get Skype to link Microsoft accounts to Skype login names.

Users of Skype 6.0 for Mac and Windows are now greeted with options to log in using a Microsoft or Facebook account.

http://news.techeye.net/software/sky...dows-messenger