MSN Messenger 7 Sneak Peek

[BigBlueBall News]

Jeff Hester
September 29, 2004

Neowin.net has given us a sneak peek at MSN Messenger 7. No, you can’t download it (yet), but we can give you some insight into the new features planned. Not surprisingly, there are no groundbreaking improvements; more of an evolutionary rather than revolutionary change.

Overall, the user interface doesn’t change much. Those of you who checked out Microsoft’s experimental threedegrees will recognize the new winks -- a fun way to send animated messages to your friends. You can also nudge a friend, which shakes their chat window to wake them up, much like Yahoo! Messenger’s BUZZ!

In MSN Messenger 7 you can now sign-in with your status set to busy, away or offline. A nice feature if you automatically sign-in, but aren’t automatically available.

Also hinted at (again) are the infamous "Deluxe Display Pictures." They aren’t yet working in this beta, but they once again seem to promise you’ll be seeing animated display pictures in the future. We’ll see.

When will it be available? According to Neowin, a beta version will be available around November 11, with a general release sometime in February 2005. For now, you can read more and check out the screenshots at Neowin.net, then share your comments in our forum.