Microsoft is scrapping its instant-messaging program and forcing most users to switch to Skype.
Maintaining Windows Live Messenger made less sense after Microsoft bought Skype for $US8.5 billion last year.
“Skype and Messenger are coming together,” Skype said in a post on its website. “By updating to Skype, Messenger users can instant message and video call their Messenger friends.”
Microsoft to drop Messenger, switch to Skype
The transition began a few weeks ago with the release of Skype 6.0 software that lets people sign into the online communication service using Microsoft accounts. By merging the two services, people won’t have to maintain two separate contact lists.
Messenger will “retire” in every country except China in the first quarter of next year.
Skype features include video calls and being able to call mobile phones from computers, as well as being able to connect with friends at leading social network Facebook.
Early this year Microsoft’s Skype division chief Tony Bates cited Facebook as key to the growth of the service, which hoped to quadruple its number of users to a billion.
A Skype feature on Facebook allows for multi-person conversations and a camera icon that can be clicked on for instant one-on-one video calls with friends.
Skype users can make low-cost or free phone calls over the internet using their computers or smartphones. Skype bypasses the standard telephone network by channelling voice and video calls over the web.
Microsoft’s purchase of Skype was a move seen as aimed at boosting its presence in an online arena dominated by Google and Facebook.
Skype was founded in 2003 and acquired by online marketplace eBay in September 2005. It was sold to an investment group led by Silver Lake in November 2009 in a deal that valued the company at $US2.75 billion.
AFP, AP
