Live Messenger 2009 Beta Looking Good
Yes, it's the same horrid installer. It has obviously undergone some changes, though, and isn't quite as bad as the previous version. My apps downloaded and installed on the first try, a stark contrast to my numerous failures with the last Live Installer.
Live Messenger's UI has received a lot of attention, including a much improved chat window. Display pictures and the chat toolbar slide in and out of view, and the conversation styling is clean and readable. I'd like to see tabbed conversation windows, but there's still no sign of that.
Photo sharing is much improved. Drag and drop pictures into the conversation, and your window splits: photos above, chat below. Viewing is synchronized, so when the viewer switches picture it updates on your view as well. It's extremely helpful when sharing and explaining screenshots or design ideas.Video calling has been tweaked, and the quality is now very good. I'm not sure I'd quite agree with the Messenger Team's claim of it feeling like I'm "watching TV," but that may be a shortcoming with my ISP more than the program itself. Regardless, it's much better than previous versions and is comparable to Skype in my testing.
The What's New Feed helps you easily keep tabs on your contacts, and passes you updates on their Live activities: blog posts and comments, photo uploads, display updates, you name it. It's a very convenient way to see your updates without having to keep a ton of tabs open, but its usefulness to me is limited right now: none of my contacts use Live services. I'd wager that we'll see more functionality in this feature before long, like Twitter or Facebook support.
Performance is good, and memory usage was kept below 25mb on my Vista machine. Overall, I'm impressed with the beta and hope that Microsoft keeps things rolling with Messenger's development.
Read more about the new version at the Messenger Live Team Blog, and you can grab the download at FileHippo.
