Microsoft Announce Windows Live Messenger XMPP Access

By , Published December 15, 2011

Microsoft has announced public access to the Windows Live Messenger network via the open-standard XMPP protocol.

“This means that anyone can build innovative messaging clients—either stand-alone or built into their devices—that include access to Messenger’s 300 million active users” writes Dare Obasanjo on the Windows Team blog.

With the move most modern XMPP-based chat clients, such as Empathy, Pidgin and Kopete, will be able to connect to Windows Live Messenger without having to use ‘pass throughs’ to the .NET Messenger Service.

The result for end users will be a more reliable and integrated connection in a wider range of instant messaging clients across different platforms.

Developers keen to learn more can head over to the Windows Team blog. Code samples can be found on GitHub.

Thanks to OrangeTux

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  • Sashin Ranasinghe

    This is great news, and a pretty good move by Microsoft especially considering the various applications and potential applications supporting Windows live messenger on mobile and other touch devices.

    • Anonymous

      Sashin- Don’t get too excited. Windows Mobile (and worse for ios) disallow Free Software on their platform. This sounds like a move to integrate their partnerships with Facebook and Skype.

      • Sashin Ranasinghe

        Disallow free software?! That’s disgusting!

  • Anonymous

    Could this possibly mean that we should start seeing a lot more webcam support in Linux clients? Or is that still an issue…

    • Subhadip Ghosh

      Yes, webcam support in Linux has always been a issue. Most of them are Windows-supported and I myself could not get my webcam (I bought that long ago when I would use Windows) work in Ubuntu.

      • daniel brenha

        every webcam I had (with incorporated into the laptop I count 5 ) it always works out of the box, just not in the chat client. also i’m including the sony’s PSeye.

        • Anonymous

          I read that drivers for most the webcams are written by one guy. He made like 400 of drivers. :)

          • https://launchpad.net/~exeleration-g Exeleration-G

            That’s true, he did it for his daughter if I remember correctly. Cool, isn’t it?

          • http://www.corbindavenport.com/ Corbin Davenport

            Yeah, you don’t see that kind of dedication for Windows.

      • https://launchpad.net/~exeleration-g Exeleration-G

        Well, actually, this is about the webcam integration in the IM client, not about webcam support in Ubuntu.

        • http://twitter.com/geiroffenberg Geir Offenberg

          which has a bug in 11.10 btw. Several cams that worked in 11.04 crash in 11.10 for no apparant reason. hope it will be fixed soon, because i hate to throw away my latest cool webcam.

          • http://twitter.com/MotionShot Heimen Stoffels

            Or they work half in 11.10
            For example, Cheese on my desktop won’t find my webcam anymore but Kamerka and Skype do (and Trillian under Wine).

    • https://login.ubuntu.com/+id/R4szkb7 Jo-Erlend Schinstad

      That should work well, as long as they’ve followed the protocol specs. Both GMail and Facebook already uses this protocol, by the way, so we may see big changes soon. The question is whether you’ll be able to connect to MSN from your own domain (or someone else’s) or if you’ll still need to have an MSN account.

    • Anonymous

      In response to the question that was actually asked: it doesn’t seem likely.

    • Anonymous

      The XMPP protocol only has basic SIP type webcam and voice access, which relies on the clients being able to create an RPC stream between them.  JingleNodes tries to fix this by using peer to peer and is what google uses in gmail for video calls; think of it like the backend of skype.

  • Glennz NL

    Thank you Microsoft! :)

    • Anonymous

      thank you competition for using XMPP.

      • Anonymous

        I’m told either the new or current Microsoft office will start supporting the open document format, so things are looking very good on many ends.

        • Anonymous

          Microsoft Office has supported .odf since MS Office 2007 Service Pack 1 or 2.

          • Anonymous

            Oh cool, well I use libre office, so i wouldn’t have known

        • http://hector-macias.blogspot.com Hector Macias Ayala

          Already does, and better than Libroffice itself.

          • Anonymous

            Incorrect.

            http://techrights.org/2009/05/08/microsoft-fragments-odf/

            http://www.odfalliance.org/blog/index.php/site/microsofts_odf_support_falls_short/

            the list goes on. Just google ‘microsoft office odf’ and all you get is negative. They purposely abused a vaguely worded section in the spec in order to create files that weren’t right and couldn’t be opened correctly in openoffice. This was done to leave a bad taste in the mouthes of lamens trying to use it.

          • http://hector-macias.blogspot.com Hector Macias Ayala

            I dont give a damn what google says, I dont even use google at all. My own experience says Libreoffice is bad.

          • Anonymous

            I have to agree with Hector, Libreoffice behaves in mysterious ways…

  • Anonymous

    Hmm… It would be nice if Mirosoft did the same thing to Skype. Unfortunately, it will never happen.

  • https://login.ubuntu.com/+id/R4szkb7 Jo-Erlend Schinstad

    Microsoft is certainly on the right track. I really like the direction in which it is evolving. Contributing to Linux instead of ignoring its existence, the move to WordPress, actively supporting Samba and now moving to XMPP… All signs of a company that is loosing some of its arrogance and learning to play well with others.

    But there is a big but here; do they allow connections from other domains so that Gmail and Facebook users can chat with MSN users, for instance? Even if they don’t, the switch to XMPP is good, but I won’t applaud until they allow their users to chat with users from different networks.

    • Anonymous

      I agree completely. If users using Gtalk and Messanger like to talk to each other they both need to create an account on Gtalk or on MSN – this is stupid. Just if two users are using two different e-mail program that they should have different email addresses.

  • http://twitter.com/ux92 uvazquez

    I’m happy about this. It’s a big leap (and it was about time to do so) for Microsoft. It’s nice to see they are starting to go on the right direction. And this is not because I’m a GNU/Linux user, this is because I know how the world works and how it should work, and this is an example of the fair play we need to make the world work right.

  • Anonymous

    that means video chat for msn protocol will be on empathy?

    after they did changed it, and the video chat broke, i ditched msn.

  • Anonymous

    Not quite.

    ”
    Microsoft has, though, also implemented a custom OAuth2 authentication scheme which means that developers will have to add support for that authentication mechanism and obtain an application ID and secret. That requirement also stops existing XMPP clients from connecting to the Microsoft service without modifications.”http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Microsoft-opens-Messenger-up-to-XMPP-1396024.html 

    • https://launchpad.net/~exeleration-g Exeleration-G

      :’-(

    • https://login.ubuntu.com/+id/R4szkb7 Jo-Erlend Schinstad

      Beautiful. :) But it’s still a step in the right direction.

      • http://2buntu.com Roland Taylor

         …

    • http://profiles.google.com/daengbo Daniel Bo

      That, and it won’t federate. Without federation, who really cares? Do many people care that Facebook chat is XMPP? No. Why? because it won’t federate with other systems.

      • http://barraponto.blog.br Capi Etheriel

        yet a few people care, because they can reliably use a single client (empathy, pidgin) for all his or her IM accounts. We could use MSN before, just not reliably.

  • Anonymous

    Huh? 0.o
    No anti-Linux move making the life of Linux users harder? No extra “security measures” that prevent you from using alternative software?
    This must be a miracle! :D

    • https://login.ubuntu.com/+id/R4szkb7 Jo-Erlend Schinstad

      It’s not, actually. Microsoft has been softening up towards freedom and the open internet for quite some time now. They still have ways to go, of course, but at least they seem to have located true north.

  • Gabriel Rousseau

    That’s it! I’m not moving to Windows!

    • https://login.ubuntu.com/+id/R4szkb7 Jo-Erlend Schinstad

      Yes, but now that Windows Live uses WordPress for blogs, open protocols for IM, etc, we have less incentive to convince people to drop Windows Live, right? Smart move by Microsoft. They’re not supporting web standards, internet protocols and free software because it’s fun. They do so because freedom is good business. People want it.

  • Anonymous

    Micro$oft is going open source? o_O

    • https://login.ubuntu.com/+id/R4szkb7 Jo-Erlend Schinstad

      Yes, they are, actually. They’re working on an open source operating system, for instance. They even develop it on Ubuntu, whether you believe it or not. At least that’s what the release notes stated a while ago when I read them.

      But Microsoft is doing more open source stuff all the time. It’s a pleasure to watch. We should welcome them to the party.

      • Yi Sun-sin

        Ho, you are speaking about that project by Microsoft Research and an Swiss university.
        Nothing to do with actual Microsoft product. It is research, they just gives their researcher some freedom on how they work.

        • https://login.ubuntu.com/+id/R4szkb7 Jo-Erlend Schinstad

          I know. But it still proves that Microsoft has opened up to using open source as a means to an end. There are much better examples if the goal is to demonstrate actual products. But it wasn’t and I think the singularity is an awesome example for so many reasons. :)

      • Anonymous

        No, their “Shared source” program has nothing to do with the actual FOSS development model.  The source sharing is restricted to companies with which they have business relations to and at the end a non-disclosure agreement prevents the source from being released.

        Also, the last time I checked “Microsoft Corporation” never showed up under “About Ubuntu”.

    • Anonymous

      MS owns Novell with OPENSuse Linux, so yes, MS went open source:)

  • https://launchpad.net/~exeleration-g Exeleration-G

    That’s true, he did it for his daughter if I remember correctly. Cool, isn’t it?

  • Jean Pierre Vidal

    Microsoft :) ?

  • http://www.dennisaltermann.com.br/ Dennis Altermann

    That’s great. I think (and hope) that will make the connection with the Live Messenger better. Anyone know if this will make better to group chat and send files over cross platform?

    • https://login.ubuntu.com/+id/R4szkb7 Jo-Erlend Schinstad

      It is the same protocol that Gmail and Facebook uses, among others, so it should dramatically improve the client experience for non-Windows users. It does depend on the implementation, though, but if they’ve followed the specs, everything should work fine.

      • http://www.dennisaltermann.com.br/ Dennis Altermann

        So probably we will see a better MSN support in Empathy, Pidgin em Kopete really soon. It’s ‘simple’ to update it or we will have to wait much more?

        • https://login.ubuntu.com/+id/R4szkb7 Jo-Erlend Schinstad

          The protocol itself is already supported, so there should be no need to change anything for clients to be compatible. But it seems they’ve added some requirements to the authentication mechanism necessary in order to connect to the server itself. I don’t know enough about it to say how much work it will be to implement.

          • http://www.dennisaltermann.com.br/ Dennis Altermann

            Great :)

            2011/12/15 Disqus

  • http://www.op-ezy.co.uk/~ian/ Dave

    Very nice, now, how about that port of Microsoft Office for Linux, how’s that coming along? ;-)

    • Gabriel Rousseau

      I didn’t find the dislike button…

      • Anonymous

        Why? Microsoft Office is a great, stable piece of software. There’s a good reason why people still use it. LibreOffice is great for a piece of FOSS software, but I’d choose Microsoft Office over LibreOffice any day. I’d happily welcome a port to Linux, more competition is always good!

        • c_rynne

          but it’s obviously a troll response. Why would Microsoft want to release Office to Linux? It would give more attention to it’s competitor, and for many people, Office is the only reason they use Windows

          • Anonymous

            Office exists for Mac OS X so why not linux………

          • http://www.mydailytech.com Connor McBrine-Ellis

            because less than 1% of the world uses linux as their desktop

          • http://www.op-ezy.co.uk/~ian/ Dave

            “because less than 1% of the world uses linux as their desktop”

            That’s still about 6 million users, that’s a lot of potential revenue!

          • Anonymous

            Actually, 2%: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems

            Since 0.1% of web browsers are mobile devices, I’m sure this explains why Microsoft has been ignoring that market, too. ;)

  • http://twitter.com/Punksolid Jose Palazuelos

    Finally everybody wins

    • Anonymous

      Except Microsoft ;)  This should be a move few years ago. MSN lost many users in case of Gtalk and Facebook chat. This was a move in despair. Hope Microsoft offers some nice tool, features etc to attract more users that could chat with Gtalk and Facebook users directly!

  • https://launchpad.net/~cwd-simpson Carl

    Relevant: http://blogs.gnome.org/xclaesse/2011/11/03/msn-in-empathy-with-xmpp/

  • Akshat Jain

    Yikes, OAuth.

  • Mladen Mijatov

    This smells like fear to me. Could it be that MSN is loosing users over Facebook chat and Google Talk?

  • Anonymous

    Does this mean I will be able to have 2 clients connected to Live Messenger via XMPP at the same time?

  • Thomas Goossens

    Now skype and i’ll be happy :-)

  • http://forteller.net/ Børge / forteller

    Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I just want to be sure about this:

    Does this mean that I, with my xx@jabber.org account, can add a friend with xx@msn.com address to my buddy list, and the other way around?
    Or is it like Facebook where, even though it’s built on XMPP, you can only add other @facebook.com users?

    • https://launchpad.net/~hellpe Pé

      It’s like Facebook. No federation. You have to keep your Windows Live ID.

      • http://forteller.net/ Børge / forteller

         Ok, thanks for the info! But then, why should I care?

        • c_rynne

          MSN Messenger features such as video calls are easier to implement

          • https://launchpad.net/~hellpe Pé

            But they’re not implemented (yet). WLM XMPP support is still very rudimentary.

  • Anonymous

    I was pretty happy when I first heard of this. I thought this had been around for a month already- some GNOME guys were working on building it into Empathy to replace the traditional MSN protocol.

    With this, it should be possible to have video/audio chats, as well, if they’re sending over these services as well.

    This is good news for people in nations where MSN is still common, especially South America (and pretty much anyone who doesn’t chat on Facebook in North America).

    I’m glad Microsoft’s being a much better digital citizen, these days. It seems the worst they’ve done over the past year or so is just not care. Oh wait, they’re making money off of Linux every day by holding B.S. patents over everyone’s heads. D: I really, really want to like you Microsoft. I don’t like your software, but at least let me like YOU. T^T

    • http://identi.ca/gerlos gerlos

      I suppose they decided to support XMPP because it lets them use our libraries in their products (smartphones for example), so they can develop clients faster and with less resources.
      Code reuse is always a good reason to do choices.

  • Satchit Bhogle

    People still use MSN/Live Messenger? o.O

    • daas88

      At least where I live (Venezuela), it still is the most used chat client and email provider… But now a lot of people is moving towards mobile messengers like BBmsn or Whatsapp

    • http://barraponto.blog.br Capi Etheriel

      Brazilians.

  • Anonymous

    Microsoft? What is this?:))

  • Anonymous

    Microsoft is using Git, a project founded by linus torvalds. I sense a change coming in the proverbial food chain

  • Zachary Detton

    Now to get Yahoo! to switch to XMPP. Then I would be able to have all my friends on one friend list under one account. I’m not going to keep a yahoo or msn account just to chat with friends on those services.

    • http://barraponto.blog.br Capi Etheriel

      i thought yahoo im and aim kinda merged, in which case aim integrates with gtalk and…

  • http://www.itechbreak.com iTechBreak

    This was a must needed move. It is good to see Microsoft is aligning it self with the  ”rest of the world”

  • https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ActionParsnip ActionParsnip

    A step in the right direction. Not something I use but if all companies started doing this for all then the IT world would be a smilier place.

  • daas88

    Is it already working under XMPP? or when will they implement it?

  • Anonymous

    I didn’t know that there were 300million active users on Windows live, that’s amazing. Good move anyhow! This is good for me aswell.

  • http://kreuger.myopenid.com/ Kreuger
 
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