A new Beta release of Microsoft’s next generation instant messaging client is currently available for download.
Windows Live Messenger 2011 Beta Refresh Build 15.4.3002.0810 was released concomitantly with the rest of the Windows Live Essentials 2011 Beta Refresh Build 15.4.3001.0809, on August 17th, 2010.
The latest development milestone of Windows Live Messenger Wave 4 brings to the table a variety of bug fixes, but also performance enhancements and new features.
Essentially, the promise from the software giant is that users will be able to do everything faster with Windows Live Messenger 2011 Beta Refresh Build 15.4.3002.0810.
“The time it takes to sign in, and to refresh contacts and social feeds, as well as animation speed, are all faster than in previous versions of Messenger,” noted
Chris Jones, Vice President, Windows Live Engineering.
At the same time, the Redmond company has focused on enhancing the level of efficiency of video chat in its IM client. “Messenger video chat uses 30% fewer CPU resources by offloading work to the GPU,” Jones explained.
But perhaps the most important change delivered with the advent of Windows Live Messenger 2011 Beta Refresh Build 15.4.3002.0810 is Facebook chat in Messenger.
According to Jones, the introduction of the feature was catalyzed by feedback received from users. This is of course a new feature in the Wave 4 version of the instant messaging client.
“With the previous beta, you got a rich social view that brought together all your updates (including those from Facebook) and gave you one place to see and comment on them,” Jones explained.
“With the new Facebook chat integration, you now also have one place to chat with all your friends. And if you use Facebook but don’t use Messenger today, you now have an always-on “people app” on your PC that gives you instant access and notifications as people come online in Facebook or Messenger,” he added.
With the evolution of Messenger, Microsoft will be able to provide a rich IM client capable of connecting hundreds of millions of users.
Jones underlined the fact that the next major iteration of Messenger will bridge 300 million IM users to some 500 million customers on Facebook.
“To make sure this happens smoothly while Windows Live and Facebook both build up the needed back-end infrastructure, we’ll start by releasing this chat capability in the US, UK, France, Brazil, Germany, and Russia today. We’ll continue to expand this offering to additional regions over time,” Jones promised.
“We know some of you want to connect Facebook to Windows Live, while others prefer to keep things separate.
“This is a major part of our design and you get to decide when to connect Facebook, and if you do what types of activities you want to allow, including chat. You can change your preferences at any time from your profile page,” he said.
Download Windows Live Messenger Wave 4 Beta Build 15.4.3002.0810 and the rest of Windows Live Essentials Wave 4 Build 15.4.3001.0809 here.
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