Windows Live Messenger 9.0 screenshots and details leak
Somewhere near the end of June, Microsoft closed its beta program for Windows Live Messenger 9.0. There have been some rumors about exciting GUI changes, but none of them have seen the light during June.
But, now, things seem to be changing. Rumors regarding GUI are still here, and now they are backed with some leaked screenshots. Some of the news were even speculating that Windows Live Messenger (yes, that IS the ex MSN Messenger) will be using WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) for its GUI.
And now, guys from Mess.be have managed to get screenshots from Microsoft’s internal builds and shared them with rest of the world. See them for yourself?
Honestly, I can’t say that I’m seeing anything that would look like WPF on these screenshots, but there are some significant GUI changes. New header looks like Microsoft guys are getting ready to roll out new Windows Live Wave 3 ? and Live Messenger 9 will, obviously, be part of it. But things don’t seem to stop at new GUI elements ? we are getting new features as well.
Windows Live Messenger 9: Contact list
There is new Favorites category for our, you guessed right, favorite contacts. We will be able to display more information about contacts added to that category. Regarding typical conversation window, you will notice that “avatars” are now located on the left side instead of right side like in earlier versions of Windows Live Messenger.
Windows Live Messenger 9: Conversation window
And what are Groups? According Arc Technica:
A Group consists of a special chat room to which you can invite your buddies, and which stays on your contact list until you delete it.
Windows Live Messenger 9: About
Group will appear to be online when at least one other buddy in the group is online, and will allow not only multiple person conversations, but sharing of files, photos, chat history, and so on.
So, what is ahead of us? With beta program coming in soon, we can hope to see much more new GUI improvmnets and those WPF effects.
Yahoo! already sports WPF on its new Messenger, what is Microsoft waiting? After all, WPF is Microsoft’s own invention!