Windows Live Messenger Beta Review (EDITED)

Hey guys, the new Windows Live Messenger Beta is out now! I've downloaded it this morning, and I've install it. As usual there's some improvement over the old one (obviously), and there are some cool functions which i like in this new Messenger.

This is the NEW "face" of the Windows Live Messenger Beta. As you can see that it has almost the same layout as the Windows Vista. By the way, i blacked out my contact's name, personal message and their avatars for their privacy. Anyway, you might ask why there are green, red and orange boxes there? Good question. It's the avatar box, where your avatar will be there, and the colours are actually the status. Green means Available, Red means Busy and Orange means Away (there is white, which only you yourself will be able to see, it means Appear Offline). You can set those who is Online to appear in your contact list, so it wont look like it's packed also it will be easier for you to navigate to other groups as wel. Below the contact's list, there's this thing call What's New. It's shows updates on your contacts, like they have changed their avatars, or their new personal message. You can click at their name, and go to their page, where their previous personal messages can be read there. You can leave a note too.


One of the functions which still remains in the NEW WLM is the themes. You can change them. But notice the red arrow? It looks like a "pull out" so you just click there, and it opens to the themes menu. My choice of theme is this purple theme, which i think it's kinda cool and i just love the colour. I'll search for some Christmas ones soon.

There are the some themes which were already there, but the problem with the themes are that the headers are kinda "pixel-ish". It looks like the header had been stretched. Also the background of your contacts, still remains white, which is same as the old messenger. It's boring.

When you go to Options, you will notice a new tab. It's the Layout tab. I think this new setting is super cool. Where you can choose the size of your contacts avatars. For me, i think it looks much more colourful, unlike last time, where everybody was the green logo only.

Then another tab which had been changed is the Sounds Tab. You can set the sound of the different parts of the Messenger with the preloaded sounds, or your own, or simply mute it.

These are the preloaded sounds. To be honest, the sounds are pretty lousy and don't make sense at all. Some of the sounds are either not suitable, for some of the Messenger's function, and the length of the sound. For example, i were to use the Cafe in Paris sound for my contacts when they come online, it might not be suitable. Or if i used the Driving Bass sound, it's too long. When one contact comes online, then it sounds, then when another one shows up, it sounds again and again and again. So yea, it's not that suitable. But. . .

You can MUTE the Nudge sound. So now, you don't have to listen to that annoying sound anymore.

This is the conversation window. As you can see, it's kinda messy, because i had to blacked the conversation. When in one minute time, and you keep on typing and press enter, it will be in point form. I guess, so that it will be easier to read and neat. For me, i think this is kinda creative idea. Also i think the avatar box is a bit bigger than the previous ones.

EDITED - One more thing i noticed about this new WLM, is that you can set your own sound to be heard on another person's computer. Example, if the A is using the new WLM, then he sets his sound when he onlines to a car revving sound, then when B is using the new WLM and when A logs in, B can hear the sound A chooses, the car revving sound. So now B knows who had onlined.

Well that was my review of the NEW WLM. I think there's room of improvement, and i think this is one of the best WLM versions ever!

Me-lvin