Posted by Aaron

After months and months of hard work (and a lot of fun!) the Windows Live Messenger team is proud to release our latest beta! I’m so excited I dressed up for this post!

If you love Messenger as much as we do, head over to http://download.live.com and grab the new beta. If the beta is not available for your area just yet, keep checking back throughout the day. We always welcome your feedback, so head over to the forums and let us know what you think. If you run into a problem check out the help page. Also head over to Windows Live Wire to see where Windows Live is going.

Over the next few weeks the Messenger bloggers and I will be going through many of the new features in more detail. For today, I’ll give you a brief highlight.

Favorites.

                If you are like me, you have a few IM buddies you chat with a little more frequently than others. People like your family, best friends, or significant other hold a special place in your heart, and now they hold a special place in your favorite IM client.

Groups.

                Messenger has had groups for some time now, but they were nothing like the new Groups! You can create a group of friends that has its own conversation window, among many other benefits. It’s a whole new way to stay in touch with your sports team, community group, or just a bunch of friends.

What’s New Feed.

                Any time your buddies update their Space, add photos, change their display picture or PSM you’ll get a quick notification in the What’s New Feed. It is a great way to keep up to date with your friends.

New Look and Feel.

                This is probably the first new thing you’ll see when you install the beta. A lot has changed in the latest version, from the main window to the conversation window, there are all sorts of visual changes to make Messenger even better.

Personalization.

                Messenger has always had great ways to express yourself, but in the latest version we take it to a whole new level. Dynamic display photos, animated display photos, and hyperlinked personal status message URLs,.. but the most dramatic feature has to be Scenes. Wait until you see it!

Sign in from multiple places at the same time.

                Now you can sign in to Messenger from several locations at once! Keep your home PC logged in and sign in at work, school, or the local internet café for a quick chat with friends without signing off your home PC.

Photo sharing

                Messenger now lets you share photos in your conversation like never before. Two-way, fully synchronous photo sharing is a really sweet way to share photos.  

There are tons more features that I just don’t have time to talk about, so head on over to the http://download.live.com to grab the beta and explore all the new features for yourself. Stay tuned to MessengerSays for detailed posts about all of the features above in the coming weeks!