14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has confirmed the public availability of access to the Messenger network via XMPP, an open standard that will allow Apple-developed IM clients to interact with Microsoft users.
According to a blog post signed Dare Obasanjo, of the Windows Live team, “anyone can build innovative messaging clients—either stand-alone or built into their devices—that include access to Messenger’s 300 million active users.”
Microsoft’s goal is to allow users to choose the service and device they want to communicate with others. iChat and iPhone will undoubtedly add a lot more adopters to the 300 million people already using Microsoft Messenger.
Obasanjo emphasizes that “With the release of the XMPP interface for Messenger, any XMPP based chat client that can also support OAuth 2.0 for authentication will be able to connect to Windows Live Messenger to enable people to see which of their friends are online and chat with them in real-time.”