Oh how I wish I had WLM (Windows Live Messenger) while studying in the States in the early eighties. I remember how I used snail mail to correspond with my parents. A letter would take about ten days (count them) to reach me from Malaysia. If I had something urgent I would have to use my land line to call them (no cellphones in those days) or send a cable through Western Union. Ugh, ugh, and ugh. It would have been nice to have WLM then or even email, at least. I’ve been using WLM for almost eight years and there’s absolutely no way I would give up on it now. So what is it that makes me feel at home with WLM? Plenty.
- It’s free. This is a no-brainer. All you have to do is download and install it in your computer, and it’s yours. Period. And while we’re on this, Hotmail—the wonderful program for email, is free too and so much more user-friendly and fast now. And look what comes with the rest of the Live Essentials suite: Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Live Mesh, Writer, Bing Bar, Mail, Family Safety, Outlook Connector Pack, Messenger Companion, and Microsoft Silverlight. You can customize what you wish to install, or install all of them. The choice is yours!
- It’s easy to use. Invite your contacts in your Hotmail or any other list to add you to their WLM. Choose your font (or use the default) and type away. If you’re an emoticon lover you’re in for a treat. WLM has a pretty cool bunch of emotes and you can add third-party ones as well.
- Video capability. All you need is a webcam and away you go. Talk to your friends and loved ones and see them in a flash. I’m using the Logitech C510 webcam which is a great HD webcam with a built-in microphone. If only I had this in the eighties!
- With WLM you have the best of everything. You can choose either to type, to make a voice call, or make a video call. Needless to say these three options aren’t mutually independent. For instance you can still type stuff in even though you’re having a video conversation with a friend .
- WLM gives you time to think. In a normal phone call we normally talk. And talk. And talk. Sometimes we do it without collecting our thoughts first. The thing I like about instant messaging is that you can type at your own pace; you don’t have to give an instant reply, and as long as you don’t hit the Enter key your message remains with you (of course once you do hit the Enter key your message is on its way)
- WLM allows you to put up a display message. Not only that, you can set your status to any one of these—Available, Busy, or Away. There is one great feature too. WLM now allows you to appear offline to all your contacts, or you can choose specific contacts (very handy when you don’t want a certain someone to know you’re online)
- Busy? On the go? Fear not, because you can do the WLM thing on your cellphones and other devices. Just download the Messenger App for your device and it’s easy as pie to chat on WLM when you’re moving around. You can download the mobile app for Windows Phone, iPhone, Android, Nokia, and Blackberry.
- What if I encounter problems? Help is just a click away at the Messenger Help Center. There are also plenty of websites that offer help free of charge, like BigBlueBall, of which I’m a staff member. Generally each new version of WLM gets better and more reliable, so much so that you might not require any help at all *wink*
- What if I get tired of chatting? Game time then. Choose from a plethora of games to play with your friends when you’re online. You can even indulge in a video call at the same time you’re playing games. Great for really getting visual!
- Get all your social updates in one place.WLM can directly connect to Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr, Blogger, MySpace, StumbleUpon, Multiply, and a host of other sites. This is so useful if you’re into the social networking thing.
So there you have it. Windows Live Messenger is a godsend to me because it really is a jack of all trades. I can’t wait to see what they’re going to include in the next version!
