Shoutbox

I would like to know how to recognise messages (such as that in a bot or a plugin for commands) through an MSN conversation window in C++.
  I've read through the Messenger API documentation but I havn't really found anything to to with messages...if I have, I've overlooked it

Can anyone help?

You'll have to go deeper than the Messenger API to get messages. I recommend you look at MSDN's documentation on Active Accessibility, especially:
- SetWinEventHook
- UnhookWinEvent
- AccessibeObjectFromEvent

Right, thanks. It's a shame there isn't a part of the MSN API for it, though.

Ah well, can't win em all.

BotDK allows you to intercept all incoming and outgoing messages .

It'd be a good idea to use BotDK to get the basics working, then when you're ready, learn Active Accessibility.