Sneak Peek at MSN Messenger 6

Jeff Hester

May 12, 2003

Microsoft announced today that MSN Messenger 6.0 would be released "this summer." Messenger 6.0 sports an flashy new user interface that reminds me of Windows Media Player 9. But the key features are voice chat and integrated video chat.

Tighter integration of the webcam chat functionality

Currently the webcam functionality is available as an add-on to MSN Messenger 5, but as you can see, they’ve much more tightly integrated it with 6.0, making it part of the chat window. Voice chat is also available, and for users running Windows XP, synchronized voice and webcam chat is possible for true videoconferencing.

Playing online games right within the chat window

We’ve been able to launch mulitplayer games from MSN for a long time, but now many of Microsoft’s Zone.com games can also be played directly in the chat window, including checkers, double-solitaire and others.

What else is in 6.0? One feature previously available only to MSN subscribers is co-browsing. Apparently this will now be available to all free MSN Messenger users, too. They’ve also added the ability to display a picture of yourself, similar to AOL Instant Messenger’s "buddy icon" concept. And it’s also rumored to include chat logging (at last!).

So when can you expect it? Granted, Microsoft was pretty vague in stating "this summer." Neowin.net was more specific, stating that it would be released on July 17th.

Related Links

• Microsoft’s press release


• MSN Messenger 6 Sneak Peek


• MSN Messenger 6.0 and MSN Radio details emerge - Neowin.net


• BigBlueBall’s MSN Messenger 6.0 Overview. You can download the beta here!


• Discuss Messenger 6.0 in our forums