Voice, video chat coming to Mac Messenger

(Credit: CNET Networks)

In some great news from Mac Mojo, the Office for Mac team blog, it looks like Windows Live Messenger for Mac will receive a major update sometime early next year. The biggest new feature update will be AV support for the personal client, which means users will be able to participate in cross-platform audio and video chat using the personal version of Microsoft Messenger for Mac. They are also working on additional features for the personal Windows Live Messenger client and are on track to preview some of the new implementations at Macworld in January at the MacBU booth. The new Windows Live Messenger for Mac with AV support should be available as a beta sometime early next year.

[Mr. Dee]

Why can't they sync up the version numbers with the Windows version of Live Messenger?

[flickrz]

Use yahoo messenger. plain and simple!

[3rdalbum]

Use Skype, plain and simple. It has supported those things since almost day dot!

I also find it hilarious that Meebo already has support for Vv on MSN on the Macintosh.

[myles taylor]

It's about time!! Too little too late, probably. The only problem with all the people who are saying "Use {insert other client here}" is that while we know that, there are a lot of people who use MSN and don't want to download another client, so at least we can chat with those people finally.

[Dalkorian]

Not many Mac users commenting I see - otherwise someone would have mentioned iChat has had this capability for years now and comes pre-installed with OS X. Messenger is so completely unnecessary it's not even funny, why anyone would contaminate their Mac's with it intentionally is beyond me.

[Bibbles0]

"why anyone would contaminate their Mac's with it intentionally is beyond me"

The answer is 400 million messenger users. Some folks might think it is easier to install Messenger than to ask the other 400M to all change and coordinate that with their "buddies". Then again, for some folks getting the 400M people to change is easier than changing their minds. :)

[emperordarius]

Next year? I never though that Microsoft would be this STUPID. Mac users are in 2008 and are still using something like MSN 7, and finally in 2009 will get MSN 8? Heh, you can find all the features of WLM 9 + additional useful features in aMSN, so there's no need to use a Microsoft Product.

[Trapper1204]

actually the best solution I found was iChat.
AV works on iChat with AIM and Jabber.
The video is clearer than yahoo, with a much higher frame rate.
The audio is far superior to skype.
I find that AIM on windows works best when doing av with iChat.
My Jabber account has my yahoo and msn gateways, so all my contacts are there.
My Mac friends also have the same setup, so we can do av in iChat via Jabber, and still comunicate with our MSN and Yahoo contacts.. all withing iChat.
Very cool

[mcharge]

This would be excellent, none of the programs i have tried have the look and simplicity of messenger:mac so i say bring it on!!

[emanzella]

Could someone please help with my issue. My brother and I are PC(Windows) users. My dad is a MAC user. He(my dad) has a built in camera. We have an external camera. We use Windows Live Messenger. My brother and I connect perfectly. We can't seem to find anything for my dad to video conference with us. Does anyone have an suggestions?

[bonesbautista]

If you guys are using Live, you really don't have a totally compatible option available if you don't have an MS server. MS is upgrading their underpinnings - you know that Live's in beta, and the service might be available "soon" for personal accounts.

Yahoo Messenger and Live Messenger are now talking to one another, and the Mac client now has webcam and voice, but I don't know if the two talk to one another via voice and video yet.

At this time, your alternatives are: all three of you getting Skype accounts; or you two get AIM/AOL accounts and hook up with his iChat (the preferred method for him); all three of you getting Yahoo accounts; or waiting until MS finishes their Live platform (who knows how long that'll take) - MS has been telling us that AV is close, but we've been waiting for years.........

[jimines]

It's about time, we have a dozen users with PC's who aren't going to stop using windows live.
Why can't you just use windows vista premium on Virtual machine on a mac an accomplish the same thing with full use of windows live?