I've been using msgplus since 2001 so thank you to everyone who has contributed and worked on it!

How possible would it be for a script which shows the nicknames of contacts instead of their display name if one has been set?

Thanks in advance

Neither scripts or Messenger Plus! have access to the nicknames. So how possible you ask... impossible...

Hello Cadellin,

Great to hear that you’re using Messenger Plus! since its beginning back in 2001. You might be interested in reading Patchou’s story about it — I am sure you will find it as interesting as I did.

Regarding contacts’ nicknames: Messenger Plus! and its scripts do not currently have access to custom names you give your contacts, for now (CookieRevised's reply to Contact Names <-> Nicknames?).

Furthermore, from Messenger 2011 onwards, Messenger has dropped support for display names. Instead, the names that your friends enter in their Windows Live Profile, is shown to you. I doubt that Messenger Plus! can or wants to change this behavior.

Does this information help you?

Actually, the removal of nicknames from wlm 2011 is quite an argument for Patchou to bring this, or a similar feature, back to Plus! 5...

Thanks for the info guys!

It would be great if Plus! could add nicknames back into 2011 as I'm sure they're missed by people who have upgraded. Personally I plan to stay on 2009 unless they add display names back in so for me its sad to hear that its not possible but I shan't complain

@mynetx: Thanks for the link to the patchou story - it was a really interesting read to see the story behind the software.

It just struck me that a dirty solution could just be to be able to add the ability to assign a custom name to a contacts tab.

Not ideal but it would solve the problem. The question is though is that possible in a script and if so how?