{"id":1909,"date":"2013-01-22T01:42:11","date_gmt":"2013-01-22T01:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/?p=404"},"modified":"2013-01-22T01:42:11","modified_gmt":"2013-01-22T01:42:11","slug":"microsoft-to-shut-down-windows-live-msn-messenger-migrate-users-to-skype","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/microsoft-to-shut-down-windows-live-msn-messenger-migrate-users-to-skype\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft to Shut Down Windows Live (MSN) Messenger \u2013 Migrate users to Skype"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s a somber announcement for those who have used Live Messenger for the last 13 years.\u00a0 Microsoft has made plans to close down the service on the 15<sup>th<\/sup> of March.\u00a0 With Microsoft\u2019s acquisition of Skype in May 2011, many started to wonder what they were going to do with TWO major chat programs.\u00a0 In November of 2012, Microsoft made their intentions of merging the programs clear.\u00a0 MSN Messenger was the most popular chat program back in 1999-early 2000\u2019s.\u00a0 It came in multiple languages and worked on multiple platforms, which was a great success at its time.\u00a0 However with the growing popularity of Skype, Facebook\u2019s built in chat, Google Talk, and other competitors, MSN just couldn\u2019t compete.<\/p>\n<p>Users of MSN messenger will be migrated over on march 15<sup>th<\/sup>, and have the option to move over sooner if they wish by a button added to the desktop app of MSN messenger.\u00a0 However reports have started coming in of contacts not moving over with accounts, causing angry complaints in the Skype and MSN forums from users.\u00a0 This has led to some panic that Microsoft will handle the transition poorly, whether or not that is true is purely speculation.\u00a0 Users are advising others to manually backup contacts before the move to avoid any data loss and to make the move painless.<\/p>\n<p>I think this migration is a good thing, then again I have been a Skype user for the past several years, and haven\u2019t used MSN messenger for a very long time.\u00a0 Skype not only has great application in the life of an everyday user, but has become increasingly useful in the business world.\u00a0 These users that don\u2019t agree with the move may not realize that the familiarity they gain with Skype may one day help them in the workplace.\u00a0 As more companies work towards digital environments, softphone solutions like Skype become essential to keep communication between mobile workers and those who are more stationary.\u00a0 Unified Communications are a very important piece to completing a well-oiled machine, and programs like Skype are helping that happen.<\/p>\n<p>Microsoft is stepping up their game, and has even integrated Skype into Windows 8.\u00a0 With Windows 8 prompting for Live signups at first login, this will help them increase users of their chat program (as if Skype didn\u2019t already have enough users).\u00a0 Being able to also integrate your Facebook chat and Outlook (even from Exchange) without Office installed makes Windows 8 a communication giant.\u00a0 No conversation will be missed with all those options at your disposal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s a somber announcement for those who have used Live [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[508],"tags":[915,413,916,415],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1909"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1909\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}