New Microsoft Messenger for Mac - when?

[Matek]

I'm an Adium user and IMHO it's a great piece of software. Unfortunately the world of IM (at least in our country) is dominated by Microsoft's MSN protocol. Although Adium supports it, it's not perfect, the avatars are sometimes low-res, they don't update correctly, the video/audio chat is still being developed, etc., which means I miss out on things when I talk to my friends on MSN.

I tried Microsoft's own client, but ATM it's really outdated. I also found some more information on a new release (click), but it's almost two months old. Does anyone know anything about the future release plans?

 

[Sky Blue]

Really, really misleading thread title.

 

[Matek]

Oh, sorry, wasn't on purpose - fixed.

 

[clevin]

version 7 supposed to be released in 2008, together with MSN messenger for windows ver 9.

but who knows, I already transfered my video buddies to skype, wonder if M$ will just throw a pie into SJ's face and tell him "no more M$'s products for you" lol

 

[stomer]

Unless a particular piece of software acts as 'leverage' for the purchase of Windows licenses then I wouldn't expect MS to provide any software updates.

If running MS software is important to you, then you might be better off running bootcamp or creating a virtual machine.

 

[speakerwizard]

i heard something about macbu stopping production of msn for mac and the team that make the pc version is starting from scratch. (maybe the other way around) either way microsoft is just so fragmented, this is the same reason for the mac entourage / outlook mess.

 

[nadyne]

i heard something about macbu stopping production of msn for mac and the team that make the pc version is starting from scratch. (maybe the other way around)

We are actively working on Messenger:Mac. A member of the Messenger team posted A Chat About Messenger to Mac Mojo (the MacBU team blog) just before Thanksgiving that has all of the latest information.

Regards,
Nadyne.

 

[mediaguru]

We are actively working on Messenger:Mac. A member of the Messenger team posted A Chat About Messenger to Mac Mojo (the MacBU team blog) just before Thanksgiving that has all of the latest information.

Regards,
Nadyne.

Thanks for the link, Nadyne. It's nice to see someone related to the project has commented.

However, there are a great number of user comments below your official blog post, and the MacBU has yet to provide any comments. All negativity aside about release dates, a relevant question that has not been addressed is concerning non-A/V feature parity between the upcoming Mac Messenger and current/future Windows Live Messenger versions. Can you provide any information regarding the addition of such features?

Aside from the whole A/V issue, some of the discrepancies mentioned by various users include:

Support for offline messages, emoticon inline preview, winks, nudges, avatars in contact list, custom nicknames, auto reconnect, tabbed chat window, sign-in and messaging in multiple locations, signature sounds, per-contact sounds, Spam reporting, animated display pictures... and the list continues.

Keeping Mac users updated on even seemingly small and unimportant details will make the community a lot more positive about your product, IMHO.

Thanks.

 

[nadyne]

Can you provide any information regarding the addition of such features?

I'm sorry, but I can't talk about specific features in future versions of Messenger. Most software developers don't like talking about their upcoming software until it's set in stone. The last thing that a software developer wants to have happen is to talk about a feature in advance because it's planned to go into the next release, only to have to yank that feature for some unforeseen reason (it took longer to code than originally thought, or something outside of the coder's control changed, or a million other things).

We're aware of the delta between Messenger:Mac and our Windows-based counterparts. Getting AV right is quite important to us. We allocate our resources to other features depending on user need. We hear from our users that they hate bloated software, so we don't want to just go add features willy-nilly without considering why we're doing it. If you use Messenger, tell us what you need, and tell us how it impacts you to not have it. What does it mean to you to not have nudges and winks? Why is support for offline messages important to you? The more information that we have about it, the better we're able to make business decisions to better meet your needs.

The best way to give feedback to us is to use our product feedback website. That way, your feedback gets aggregated with the other feedback that we get, and we have real data to help steer our course.

Regards,
Nadyne.

 

[mediaguru]

Nadyne,

Thanks for your quick response, and your points are well-taken. Specifically:

I'm sorry, but I can't talk about specific features in future versions of Messenger. Most software developers don't like talking about their upcoming software until it's set in stone. The last thing that a software developer wants to have happen is to talk about a feature in advance because it's planned to go into the next release, only to have to yank that feature for some unforeseen reason...

Sorry, let me clarify my comment. I don't think there are many people who would want to learn of "new" features only to learn later that they are not included in the shipping product. Something that caught my eye, however, were the sheer number of similar comments to the blog post that went unanswered. Granted, some people have little to do to post in the negative tone they do. But, there are also some legit responses. Without releasing non-firm information, at least some official responses might motivate people submit more useful feedback to the development team.

We hear from our users that they hate bloated software, so we don't want to just go add features willy-nilly without considering why we're doing it. If you use Messenger, tell us what you need, and tell us how it impacts you to not have it.

I absolutely agree with you about "bloat." However, I do think that with a service such as MSN/WM/WLM that has been presented to end-users as being cross-platform, there is a need to make the client software feature set consistent across platforms. Whether or not the items i copied here from the blog comments are of any real use, users of the Messenger service should be able to expect the same features and functionality across platforms. Other messaging services have done a much better job of this recently; I think the sentiment is that the same should be true of Messenger:Mac.


Once again, thanks for your responses. Please continue to frequent our threads here on MR!