Redmond has outlined its plan to start the shutdown of its Windows Live Messenger service. The phased retirement will officially begin on April 8, and the desktop version will be the first to go.
Requiescat in pace, Windows Live Messenger — it was great knowing you.
Microsoft had initially planned pull the plug on the chat and communication platform on March 15, but the company has now updated its plans to move the millions upon millions of Messenger users to Skype.
According to ZDNet, English speaking countries will be the first to go and users will be forced to move to Skype (or other clients), and the transition will officially end on April 30 with Portugal.
The company hopes most of the users will move over to Skype, and is already providing several resources to make the transition as effortless as possible for everybody.
Even though the iOS build has no long been available since January, the decision to retire the desktop version first, according to Pari Munsell, the director of Marketing Integration for Skype, is because most Windows Live Messenger users are using the desktop version of the program.
Nevertheless, third party clients (like Trillian and Pidgin) are safe for now and support for the Messenger service will continue to live on there. For how long, however, is the big question?
