Windows Phone 7.5 to include native Windows Live Messenger integration

By Tom Warren, on 9th May 11 11:43 am with 16 Comments

Microsoft is currently building Windows Live Messenger support directly into Windows Phone 7.5, WinRumors has learned.

The software giant is currently compiling “Mango” builds of Windows Phone 7.5 that include Windows Live Messenger support. The company is building the support directly into its People Hub on Windows Phone. LivesSide posted some details of the integration on Monday but WinRumors understands the support will be intelligent enough to pick the best means of communication. For example, if a Windows Phone 7.5 user wishes to message a contact inside their people hub, Windows Phone 7.5 will pick Windows Live Messenger over SMS automatically if the user is online. However, Microsoft’s deep integration could cause some concerns with mobile operators wishing to maximize their profits. I expect Microsoft will be forced to provide an option to disable the function for certain mobile operators.

Microsoft’s Windows Live Messenger integration is also expected to include support for forward facing cameras. Microsoft has not yet officially confirmed the hardware support for Windows Phone 7.5 but is expected to announce this later in the year. Microsoft also revealed some new features of Windows Phone 7.5 over the weekend. The company is building in native QR, Microsoft Tag support and the ability for Bing to identify songs in a similar way to Shazam. Microsoft is also building in turn-by-turn navigation and SMS dictation for Windows Phone 7.5.

Microsoft is currently hard at work on “Mango”, its next major release of Windows Phone. Microsoft has promised to ship “Mango” later in the year. “Mango” is currently in the early beta stages at Microsoft, built as 7.1 currently. The company revealed a number of new features in February that will ship as part of its Windows Phone point release later this year. Nokia is also reportedly waiting for the next release of Windows Phone before it unveils its first Windows Phone device.

“Mango” currently contains multitasking, Internet Explorer 9 mobile and Twitter integration. Microsoft unveiled a number of key developer enhancements at its MIX11 conference earlier this month. Developers will have access to the Motion Sensor library and the camera, enabling augmented reality experiences. Phone integration has also been greatly improved for developers wanting to do more with their apps. The Live Tiles functionality has been expanded to give developers more flexibility and engage with their customers better.

http://www.google.com/profiles/the.headquarter the-hq

awww yeah
http://twitter.com/tonycubed Tony

They need something to compete with BBM, the amount of people I’ve seen in the past 6 months switch to Blackberry’s just because of this feature is stupidly impressive.
- GP007
  
  One could argue that Lync is what MS is using to target BBM. Also Lync support should be in Mango as well. Instead of you using WLM you should be able to sign-in to a Lync server as well.
  
  So WLM for consumers and Lync for business.
- Anonymous
  
  Consumers use BlackBerry just for BBM. The amount of high school students/teenagers I’ve seen texting on their BBs is astounding.
TryllZ

I don’t find this BBM crap interesting especially when you have to pay to just tick-tick on the keyboard, WLiv e is better…atleast its free over wifi….
Anonymous

This is great news!
Shai

Tethering?! Im over changing my sim card to my WM6.5 phone whenever I need mobile net :S
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Z6W56L5FCCEDHNOJT4NXML23R4 Isaac Barrett

Finally… Why couldn’t they have announced this a couple months ago? It is so ridiculous to have such a powerful device like the WP7 and not support it with native Windows Live Messenger.
- Morgan Wisbey
  
  would assume it’s because of the lack of push notification and inability to run apps in the background. Mango will bring everything they need to make Messenger work.
- Morgan Wisbey
  
  would assume it’s because of the lack of push notification and inability to run apps in the background. Mango will bring everything they need to make Messenger work.
http://twitter.com/abhi1manyu Abhimanyu Jamwal

wonder if the live messenger will allow you to chat with facebook friends too……….as it does on the desktop version, if that happens…..awesomeness could be redefined with “mango” ….I can see a long queue in front of O2 store in UK
http://twitter.com/abhi1manyu Abhimanyu Jamwal

I don’t get this….why are they waiting till september….they need a competitive product now, not in the future, by that time, we might have even more feature filled version…..having push notification for facebook app is not so difficult to start with or bing having image search is not that difficult, whats the point of waiting for 1 year..its like using vista and waiting for windows 7
- Calum
  
  It takes time to develop software. . . .
http://profiles.google.com/carlosrfonseca Carlos Ribeiro da Fonseca

This is nice but it shouldn’t be released “later in the year” it should be released now. This also applies to the new features in the previous post, Microsoft should be launching new features — and essentially playing catchup with Apple and Google — every 2 ou 3 months, not maybe if we’re lucky once a year. By then Apple and Google may well have updated their phones and included any new and innovative features that Microsoft is promising for Mango and then Mango won’t be new, it will just be catching-up.

But oh well, it’s their “strategy” and Nokia will probably save their bacon next year so why worry?
http://profiles.google.com/carlosrfonseca Carlos Ribeiro da Fonseca

This is nice but it shouldn’t be released “later in the year” it should be released now. This also applies to the new features in the previous post, Microsoft should be launching new features — and essentially playing catchup with Apple and Google — every 2 ou 3 months, not maybe if we’re lucky once a year. By then Apple and Google may well have updated their phones and included any new and innovative features that Microsoft is promising for Mango and then Mango won’t be new, it will just be catching-up.

But oh well, it’s their “strategy” and Nokia will probably save their bacon next year so why worry?
Anonymous

Windows Phone 7.5 seemed intresting.