Windows Live Messenger 9.0 Beta

Yesterday, Microsoft officially started the beta-testing of the much-awaited Windows Live Messenger 9.0. As expected, the WLM 9.0 Beta feature list was leaked a few days before the official start of the beta-testing & most sites that posted the feature list were asked to remove it.

So, what’s new in the next major release of WLM?
- Sign-in and messaging in multiple locations - You asked for it, now you have it! You can now sign into Messenger from more than one computer at a time, up to four at once. Simply sign into Messenger from one computer, install Messenger on another computer and sign in using the same account. (Only works if all computers are running Messenger 9.0 Beta. Currently enabled only for users whose Windows Live ID country is US or Canada.)

- Signature sounds – Pick your own personal sound that your contacts will hear when you sign into Messenger (only works if you and your contacts have Messenger 9.0 Beta).- Per contact sounds - Pick unique sounds for each of your contacts. You will be able to tell from across the room who is sending you a message.

- SPAM Reporting - If users send you unsolicited messages or invitations that you consider spam, you can block them and report them as spammers. If you report a user as a spammer, the messenger service will collect this data and put appropriate restrictions on the spammer accounts. All reports of spammers are kept confidential.

- Animated Display Pictures – Show your moves! Messenger now supports animated .gif files as display pictures.

- Link in Personal Status Message – URLs in Personal Status Messages are hot and clickable in the Messenger contact list.

- Behind the Scenes Changes – Architectural changes that modified how things work but shouldn’t have changed how things look:
- Changes to sign-in, connectivity, presence, sending text IM’s, voice & video features
- Windows Live Contacts Server – wlcomm.exe runs in the background to keep your contacts’ information up-to-date and helps Messenger sign you in faster

The big feature of WLM9 is no doubt the signature sounds… WLM, using a built-in mp3 editor, allows you to edit 5 s of your most favourite piece of music (or most annoying sound) & then sends it to all your friends - so that you can annoy them by signing in & out. The plus point is the really neat wave editor interface that seems to be taken off from professional DJ software!

& you can (finally!!!!) now change your display picture to an animated gif!!!
Apart from these improvements, nothing else has changed from WLM 8.5, same interface, same emoticons, same colours…

If you want to download the Beta, just look around, you’ll find it… (I’m not sure whether I can post the download links here?)