It would appear that the Windows Live Messenger team has already started planning new features etc for Windows Live Messenger 9.
Although the list does have some good bits it does, however, include stealing ideas from Messenger Plus! Live.
quote:
Whilst you budding Windows Live Messenger testers are fiddling around with the interim version, 8.1, there’s still another major milestone coming. Once a product has been released, they usually look for how it can be improved for the later version; with Windows XP, before it hit the shelves they realised how it could be improved for the next operating system, being Windows Vista. Even though Messenger 8.1 is to come out before Christmas 2006 (if all goes accordingly), Microsoft are still planning what’s to come in Messenger 9.0 which will be the next major milestone for this core Windows Live service.
So… what do you want to go into it? If you use any version of Windows Live Messenger, what could be improved - what doesn’t need to be there - what could be included? If you’re not a Windows Live Messenger user (maybe you’ve stuck with MSN Messenger 7.5 or use an alternative client), then what would persuade you to jump on the bandwagon for the new version?
Some things to think about include:- Theme of the client
- Adding features that Messenger Plus! Live offers as an addition to the original client
- Family Safety features - making sure your children and those younger are safe
- Windows Vista and Windows Aero (previously known as Aero Glass) enhancements
- Audio/video features
- Virus and malware protection
- File sharing and modifications to Sharing Folders
- Video sharing
- Windows Live Spaces within the main window (eg: blog directly from Messenger)
- Windows Live Mail within the main window (eg: send mail directly from Messenger)
- Added plug-ins and sharing activities
- Colour functionality in names by default
If you can think of anything including, or a modification of the above features that you want to see in Messenger, leave a comment and I’ll make sure someone/many of the Messenger team has a browse around for ideas.
This was posted by
Zack Whittaker, a Microsoft employee, at
MSBLOG. He then went on to say:
quote:
There is no such thing as a ”suggestion database”, and most of the ideas have already been finalised. This was purely a way of getting the public’s ideas on what they would like to see - so then I can pass them on, or it viewed by an employee.
So it looks like one of the main features of Plus!, adding colours to names, will definitely be included in the next main/milestone version along with "Adding features that Messenger Plus! Live offers as an addition to the original client".
This is a real disappointment; it seems that Plus! is too good for its own sake and will have no features left by the time version 10 of Messenger comes out. I wonder if any of this was discussed with Patchou when he went to Redmond - surely they wouldn't actually tell him that they are going to ruin his great program.
/ 
