Inside Windows Live Messenger:: Features

Refresh your memory with conversation history

Tue, 22 May 2007 22:11:36 GMT

Posted by Jason

If you’re anything like me, you probably have a million things going on around you all at once. You’re writing an e-mail, browsing the web, answering your phone, carrying on a conversation in Messenger, and thinking about what to have for dinner… all at once.

Lots of times, my friends say to me, “Hey… do you remember that link I sent you last week? The one with the video?” Um… no…

Messenger has a great feature to help with this problem! It’s called the conversation history. The conversation history is an archive of the messages sent between you and your buddies. This feature is off by default because, well, some people get a little uneasy about saving all of their IM’s. That’s understandable… but you might just find this feature REALLY useful!

To enable conversation history, click on “Tools – Options” in the main window or any conversation window. Select the “Messages” item from the list on the left.

Select “Automatically keep a history of my conversations.” “Show my last conversation in new conversation windows” is also a very handy feature! You can save your conversation history to any folder, but it defaults to “My Received Files\History” your Windows Documents folder.

The next time you have a conversation with a buddy, your IM’s will be saved on your hard disk. To see a history of your IM’s, go to “File – View message history” in the conversation window. It’s easy to search your message history or delete it, if you choose.

So, the next time your buddy sends you a link and asks you about it later, you can refresh your memory with the conversation history!

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If you have a comment on this post please comment! For other questions/concerns/discussion topics/rants/raves/etc - please head over to the Windows Live Messenger Newsgroup.

IM Gamer!

Thu, 17 May 2007 20:59:11 GMT

posted by Nasa

Hey Gamers ... If you have an XBOX 360, you can now IM with your friends on Windows Live Messenger from the console. Way Cool!

Using Xbox 360, you can connect with your Microsoft® Windows® Live Messenger community directly from your television. Text chats with friends and family are integrated between the Xbox 360, PCs, and mobile devices.
The integration of Windows Live Messenger lets you:

Combine your Xbox LIVE Friends and Windows Live Messenger contacts on your console, and see where they overlap.
Broadcast what you are doing on your Xbox console to your PC contacts.
See which contacts play Xbox 360.
Have as many as six multiparty conversations at one time.
Participate in a conversation within the Xbox Guide or while watching video, navigating the dashboard, or playing a game.

Set Up Windows LIVE Messenger on Xbox 360

You can set up Windows LIVE Messenger on Xbox 360 with the Windows LIVE ID associated with your Xbox LIVE account.
To set up Windows LIVE Messenger:

Turn on your Xbox 360 console with no disc in the tray and go the Xbox LIVE area of the Xbox Dashboard.
Select Chat and IM.
Select the Messenger tab.
Select Continue.
Select Sign Up for Messenger. The Windows LIVE Messenger welcome screen is displayed.
Warning
If you sign up for Messenger on Xbox LIVE, your gamertag will be visible to your Windows LIVE Messenger contacts.

Select Continue. The Windows LIVE ID field automatically populates with the Windows Live ID that's associated with your Xbox LIVE account.
Type your password and select Done.
Select Save Password or Don't Save.
Note
If you decide not to save your password, you will need to enter it each time you sign in to Messenger on Xbox LIVE.

Select Continue.
If you have Windows LIVE Messenger contacts who also have signed up for Messenger on Xbox LIVE but are not already on your Xbox Friends list, a list appears with contacts who you can invite to become Xbox LIVE friends.
Choose which contacts you want to invite to your Friends list, and select Done.

For more information on how to sign in, IM your friends list, use a USB keyboard with Messenger on XBOX, and more, go to xbox.com.

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If you have a comment on this post please comment! For other questions/concerns/discussion topics/rants/raves/etc - please head over to the Windows Live Messenger Newsgroup.

Messenger Tips & free stuff!

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 18:59:14 GMT

posted by Nasa

Have you used sharing folders yet?

Do you know how to change your background?

Have you played games with your friends ....

or started a video conversation?

For those who wanted basic tips on how to use Messenger, check out our new website with short tutorials, with pictures! Now that's cool.

Speaking of cool ... Don't miss these free display pictures & backgrounds created exclusively for Windows Live Messenger. (hint: if you hit refresh on this web page, you may see new ones show up!)

I'm currently using this one on the left. It's quite spiffy!

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If you have a comment on this post please comment! For other questions/concerns/discussion topics/rants/raves/etc - please head over to the Windows Live Messenger Newsgroup.

Looking at my contacts from every angle

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 04:32:30 GMT

Posted by Ali

Happy Spring! In addition to springing forward one hour and checking my smoke detector battery, I like to clean and organize my contact list. One benefit of working on a cool product like Windows Live Messenger is that I have many different types of people in my contact list. Friends, Family and Coworkers. In order to keep it all straight I can organize my contact list in 3 ways with 2 different views by clicking on the arrows icon to the right of the add contact button.

Sorting

Now I will go through the 3 ways to sort your contact list

1. Sort by status - This allows you to sort your contacts by their presence status, Online, Mobile or offline. This is what it looks like when I do this to my contact list.

And what are those icons anyway. = Online, = Mobile, and = Offline.

2. Sort by groups - This is my favorite setting because I can create as many different groups as I want to and add people to as many different groups as I like. The default groups are Family, Friends, Coworkers, and Other Contacts. As you can see from my list below I have a lot of custom groups. For the groups that I want to show up at the top of my list, they are sorted alphabetically, I add a . in front of the name. For example .Messenger Dev below.

You will notice that only my online contacts are showing up in my Friends group which is expanded above, this is because I went to the contact menu and chose to group mobile contacts and offline contacts together. This means that all Offline and Mobile contacts get put in a separate groups when these contacts log into Messenger and their presence is changed to Online then they move into the appropriate group.

You will also notice that I have it set up to Group non-instant messaging contact together. This is because I chose to "Show all contacts" in Messenger. This means that contacts that I add in Hotmail to my address book are also available in Messenger. I love having a global address book!! This is the same as choosing Show all contacts in the arrows menu mentioned above. You will also notice that in this menu, I also have the option to show only Messenger contacts or only Online contacts in my contact list.

3. Sort by recently updated spaces - I like to use this option when I have been away for awhile and I want to catch up on what is going on with my friends. When I choose this option, my contact list looks as follows:

Views on my contacts

As I mentioned above there are 2 ways to view your contacts in a list. The regular way which means that your contacts will looks like this:Or, you can choose Show contacts' details

and your contacts will look like this:

Other Contacts Options

The last thing I will blog about, since this is probably information overload, is that you can also decide how you want to view your contacts.

There are 3 options.

1. By Display Name - This is the name that you contact has given to themselves.

2. By First and Last Name - This uses the information about this contact that you have stored in your address book.

3. By Email Address - This is exactly what it sounds like, all of your contacts show up as their email address.

OK, that is all for now. Happy Spring Cleaning!

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If you have a comment/question/concern/discussion topic/rant/rave/other - please head over to the Windows Live Messenger Newsgroup.

Say it with Ink!

Tue, 06 Feb 2007 20:52:04 GMT

posted by Nasa

Have you tried "ink" yet? In Windows Live Messenger, you can send messages in your own handwritting using the digital equivlent of ink. It's easy to do if you have a Tablet PC, but you can also do it with a mouse! I love using ink to express my thoughts or just make my friends laugh!

Here are the basics from the Windows Live Messenger Help:

To send a handwritten message:

At the bottom of the conversation window (The window you use to send and receive instant messages.) , click the handwriting button .
Use the six formatting buttons that appear in the conversation window to personalize your message.
Click Send when you are finished.

There are a few things you'll notice when using ink. First, the typing indicator now shows your friends "writing a message" instead of "typing a message".

Also, the IM window will have a new toolbar which will allow you to select your pen size, erase if you make a mistake, rotate, choose colors, and enable a grid.

Once you are in handwritting mode, you can write/draw in the IM window. Now you have one more way to illustrate your ideas! Have fun!

If you have a comment/question/concern/discussion topic/rant/rave/other - please head over to the Windows Live Messenger Newsgroup.

Tip for those curious but lazy! :)

Tue, 07 Nov 2006 01:39:46 GMT

posted by Nasa

Often times, my co-workers and friends will put cool or interesting URLs into their personal message as a way to share it with their buddies. Of course, I'm curious to see what it's about ... but sometimes those URLs are so long, I just don't want to bother typing it into my browser!

If this has ever happened to you, here's a tip: You can copy/paste the URL from the IM Window!

Here's how ...

1) Open an IM Window with your friend

2) Click their personal message at the top of the window, to show a text box

3) You can now select the URL with your mouse and use CTRL+C to copy it

4) Open your browser, then CTRL+V to paste it into the address bar

VOILA!

Of course, it's not as easy as just clicking on a URL ... but it's easier than typing!

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If you have a comment/question/concern/discussion topic/rant/rave/other - please head over to the Windows Live Messenger Newsgroup.

So Many Ways to Communicate

Sat, 14 Oct 2006 22:48:25 GMT

Posted by Ali

I have been working on Messenger for 4 years and it is amazing to me how we have expanded the communication horizons in this time. When I joined we did Text IM and some Voice and Video (but it didn't always work). Now we have Text IM, Reliable Voice, Video and Webcam (picture only). When your buddies are offline and around town, you can send mobile messages via SMS to their mobile phone. Or leave them Offline IM for when they return. You can even call their phone from Messenger! All of these options can be found by right clicking a buddy. You will get the menu below. Happy communicating!

If you have a comment/question/concern/discussion topic/rant/rave/other - please head over to the Windows Live Messenger Newsgroup.

Be Alert with Windows Live Messenger

Fri, 06 Oct 2006 20:21:06 GMT

Posted by Daniel

Since some very smart people invented this thing called "The Internet" pretty much every information we care about is available in a few seconds. Everybody thinks that it makes our life easier. I kind of agree and in the same time disagree, I think it actually raised the standard of how informed we should be. There are lots of things happening around us that affect our busy life. And we need to know if these things are happening right now. Why? Because it's possible. Is my favorite stock going up or down? Is there a traffic jam? Did I get that mail from my boss? How's the weather forecast? Did someone respond to my garage sale ad? What happens in the world? How's Seahawks doing? And in the same time we have to work for a living and to spend time with our family. Who has the time to check 20 web sites every hour? Definitely not me and I'm sure most of you feel the same.

But not everything is lost. Windows Live Messenger and Alerts are here to help. Most of us keep Messenger running 24/7 and it can do most of this work for you. Okay, it will not make coffee or replace you at work but it will keep an eye on "The Internet" and it will let you know when something interesting to you happens by popping a toast.

You might have noticed the Alerts tab in Messenger. It's the one with the yellow bell. Here is the place where you will see a history of alerts. It is useful when you take a break from your computer and you might have missed some toasts.

How do we control what kind of alerts we get? On the rigth top corner there is a link "Go to site". Click on it and your browser will navigate to http://alerts.live.com where you can select the alert types, the delivery methods and a lot more options. You can even tell it to send the alerts to your phone when you are not signed into Messenger. Isn't that great?

Here are a few types of alerts you can get:

Inside Windows Live Messenger blog updates - that's right, you will know when we have a new post on this blog
Breaking news and headlines from MSNBC News
Sports scores and updates from Fox Sports
MSN Video Alerts
Stock alerts from MSN Money
Real-time local traffic incidents from MSN Carpoint
Local weather forecasts
AMBER alerts - important messages about abducted children in your area
New job opportunities that match your skills - from careerbuilder.com
When someone responds to your Expo Live ad
and more ... - check http://alerts.live.com for the full list

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If you have a comment/question/concern/discussion topic/rant/rave/other - please head over to the Windows Live Messenger Newsgroup.

Art Attack

Wed, 06 Sep 2006 16:12:01 GMT

posted by Leah

I know you know this, because we’ve been over it before, but it doesn’t hurt to say it again: Free is good.

Yay for people around here getting that memo, because once again, free stuff is available for Windows Live Messenger. Over at http://messengervibe.com you can download up to 27 free theme packs created by different artists specifically FOR Windows Live Messenger.

Wanna hear a story? When I first heard we were getting different theme packs from different “artists” I assumed we were talking “musical artists” because that’s how “artist” seems to be used lately. When I visited http://messengervibe.com and read the list of artist names, I panicked:

“Oh Dear! I don’t know any of these people. How did I get so far out of touch with today’s hot musicians!?” Then I looked closer and realized these were not musical artists at all, but actual graphical artists, which makes a lot more sense when talking about theme packs. At first I sighed with relief.

“Phew. I’m still in touch.” But THEN I freaked out again.

“Oh Dear! I don’t know anything about the pop art scene. I’m SO uncultured.”

So now, I’m going to do a few things:

1) Get some free theme pack goodness.

2) Expand my own awareness of the current visual art scene.

3) Eat breakfast. My belly is grumbling.

Search Activity Refreshed!

Tue, 25 Jul 2006 07:40:47 GMT

Posted by Joseph, a Search Activity Program Manager

Have you ever tried Search Activity in Messenger ? After 3 months wait, we bring you a new refresh to this feature.

First, you can search images while chatting with buddy now. Wow!

Not only search, but also you can play with a powerful drag/drop:

To send the image result, please drag/drop it to the message box
To set as your display picture, just drag/drop it to the display picture area
To set as the window background, drag/drop the result to anywhere else

PS: Currently, search images only available in English language country (US, United Kingdom, Australia).

Have you ever complained about why not support IE 7? Now, we support it for you. Customer is always our God.

If you often typo some keywords, our new spell checker feature can help you greatly.

For those who haven't tried this Search Activity yet, please go to the Blog entry below and try it:

http://messengersays.spaces.msn.com/blog/cns!5B410F7FD930829E!13652.entry

Finally, it's show time for the exciting features in future:

Instant Answers
Support for 32 more markets
User tutorial

Talk to your Yahoo! friends from Windows Live Messenger

Thu, 13 Jul 2006 00:19:10 GMT

Posted by Dan, a Yahoo! + Messenger Program Manager

Now Available!

As If Windows Live Messenger, the world’s largest Instant Messaging network, wasn’t big enough... it just got a whole lot bigger. We've joined forces with Yahoo! Messenger with Voice, which means that you can use Windows Live Messenger to talk to your friends who use either. We are talking about over 300 Million users around the world that you can now communicate with through one client.

Technically, this wasn’t easy; we have been working on this for a while and had to try a few different ways to make it work. We’re pretty excited about the solutions we’ve come up with for our first version of yahoo + messenger. Some of you may be thinking “but there are already other program out there that let me do this.” You’re half-right. Our solution is different than the existing ones because you only need one e-mail address to use both networks. You don’t need a Windows Live & Yahoo! Account to make it work. So if you’re a Windows Live Messenger person, for example, you can keep the same address you’ve always used to sign in, but now have the ability to add and chat with your Yahoo friends.

To add a Yahoo! contact in Windows Live Messenger, (after you've signed up for the beta)just click on the add a contact button. Then type their Yahoo! ID + @yahoo.com (example: example@yahoo.com) Your Yahoo! friend will get an invitation, and once they accept you are ready to chat, see when they’re online, nudge them, send emoticons, send offline IMs, and share your witty personal status messages.

Remember, this is only the first version. And though we are planning to add many cross-network features in the future, this should be more than enough to get you started.

So how do you get started? Sign-up on http://ideas.live.com. Enjoy!

Sharing Folders: Not Supported?

Thu, 01 Jun 2006 05:44:37 GMT

Posted by Ines.

If you are running the latest Messenger Beta (which you should be since it is now open to everybody ), you have access to a new feature we introduced in this 8.0 release: Sharing Folders.

But, there is one caveat : Sharing Folders is only supported on computers where the primary partition is formatted with the NTFS file system.

Why you ask ? In order to provide the best “Sharing” experience possible, we decided to rely on the NTFS file system’s rich set of functionality (I won’t bore you with the gory details ).

So, what can you do if you realize that Sharing Folders is disabled because your system is FAT32? No need to worry; here are a few steps that will help you get up and sharing quickly by converting your hard drive :

Click Start, and then click Run.
Type cmd, and then click OK.
Type convert c: /FS:NTFS.
Restart your computer.

Now your system should be ready to start Sharing!

For more on Sharing Folders, select "Help->Help Topics" from Messenger, and then type "Sharing Folders" in Windows Live Help's Search bar.

Developers, developers, developers!

Fri, 12 May 2006 22:16:23 GMT

Posted by Daniel

Do you want to be a Messenger developer? It's simple, go to Microsoft Careers and submit your resume. [Update: see this post for details on hiring]

Okay, maybe you are not ready to make this step yet but you still want to develop code for Messenger? No problem, we've got that covered.

As of this week, the Messenger Add-ins feature is officially available to developers only. The option to enable add-ins in the Options dialog is disabled but there is a registry key which allows developers to use their skills and build wonderful add-ins. Ken Levy has all the details on his blog and Katie, the add-in dev, has samples and docs on her blog.

The Microsoft hackers who participated at the Window Live Hack Day already know what I'm talking about. And James, the PM who made the add-ins possible also had something to say about it.

Just don’t forget to let us know what you think about add-ins. We appreciate any feedback, comments or suggestions.

More on Windows Live Hack Day

Mon, 24 Apr 2006 17:57:21 GMT

guest posted by Program Manager, James

What’s better than a company that gives out free coffee and soda at any time of the day? How about a company that not only asks it’s employees to hack up pre-release software, but bribes them with free food, beer, and prizes to do it!

I went to Windows Live Hack Day this year intending to help those people who wanted to hack Windows Live Messenger. As I watched things go on I felt like all I needed was a roving camera and a podcast web site to become a Diggnation host. (trackback-http://revision3.com/diggnation)

I was the lucky program manager to give a presentation on Add-ins, these cool new things Messenger has coming soon to a download link near you. Think of add-ins as electrical outlets. Developers can write their own code, plug it in to messenger and cool things happen.

At the end of the day, we (platform developer Katie and I) received five completed add-in submissions. The winner was a customized-per-buddy auto-responder. With this add-in, this guy made it so Messenger sent back different auto-responses based which buddies IMed him. Second place went to a developer who built a paternity-leave auto-responder. As people IMed him, his Messenger automatically responded, informing the buddy that he was gone for a month of paternity leave.

There was so much excitement around the fact that Messenger is putting energy into building things like Addins – I’m sure we’ll have WAY cooler stuff to show off next year. But I’m getting ahead of myself…to find out more about what’s coming out soon on the Windows Live Developer front, check out some of these other sites and blogs (some have it right, some have it wrong, but all are excited!)

WL Experimentation Platform

LiveSide: Add-ins

Mess.be: More on Add-ins

Search, IM and Share All At Once!

Thu, 20 Apr 2006 07:51:28 GMT

Posted by Ines.

Have you ever wanted to search and IM with your friends at the same time ? Or even better, drag and drop news results and share them with your buddies while chatting it up? If you have, great news : this functionality is now available through Messenger !

Joseph Yao, a program manager working on the Search Activity, guest posts to explain it all:

What do you share with your friend when you're chatting?
Your well-wishing for coming holiday?
Your album of recent travel in China?
Have you ever tried to share a link with them?

"Yes, of course. I'm a shopping expert. My friends often ask me where they can buy the most popular fashionable dress. I will search on the web, find it and send the web page link to them."

Aha, then I guess you must have to copy/paste the link and close some browser window after you share it with your friend. Don't you feel anything inconvenience doing so?

Fortunately, I never need to do so when I want to share such kind of things with my friend. My secret is......

Search in Messenger!

How to use it:

Open a conversation window
Hit "Activities"
Select the top one: Search
Input some keyword, and then Go!

Tips:

It's a single user activity. Your friend won't need to accept anything when you want to search.

Requirements:

Now available on Windows Live Messenger Beta and MSN Messenger.
Currently only available in the US, United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Japan.

Coming soon:

Spell check
Image Search
More and more available countries

OIM FAQ 4 U

Mon, 03 Apr 2006 20:20:26 GMT

posted by Nicole

My favorite Windows Live Messenger feature is Offline Instant Messages (OIM). Maybe because I worked on it? Nah I work on a lot of stuff. Maybe because it has been an user request for a long time? Yeah.. User love rocks. The real reason it is that it has been my wish for Messenger for like ever!

I have created an OIM FAQ 4 U below. If you have other questions about OIMs please leave them as comments.

How can I send an OIM?

Get Windows Live Messenger, click sign up
Double click on an offline contact
Send a Message
Ta-da

I OIMs! But oh - why oh, why oh did Messenger take so long to do OIMs-oh?

Not sure how to answer this so I will briefly explain how we decide what is in each release.

We have a very long list of things we would want to do.
We prioritize the list based on feedback from users, parnters, business planners, Bill Gates and me*.
Then we figure out how long each thing will take to design, code and test.
We then select items from the top which we can get done in the schedule we want to hit.
Then we design, code, test and ship!
And repeat.

*Bill and I don’t actually talk in person and most people on the Messenger team help with prioritization. I have just always wanted to be in the same sentence will Bill and I now I have.

That first question sounds strange, why?

I went to see Wonderful Town this weekend, check out the lyrics to Ohio. I didn’t think the show was very wonderful, but that is a post for another blog.

I have a friend who is always mobile when they are not signed into Messenger. How can I send them an OIM?

Right-click on your mobile friend
Select Send Other…
Select Send an Offline Instant Message
Ta-da!

I have some lame friends who are not using v8.0. Will they receive the OIMs I send them?

Yeppers! As long as they are using v7.0 and above they will still receive OIMs. Only us cool kids on v8.0 can send OIMs. If you want to be cool get v8.0 Messenger here, just click sign up.

Options, options I love options. Are there any options for OIM?

Yes, there is one option.

OK, great! What is the option for?

To select how you want to receive OIMs.

And where is it? And what does it do?

Tools -> Options -> Messages -> Offline Instant Message Settings

It allows you to either:

get all your OIMs as soon as you sign on (my favorite) OR
know how many people have sent you OIMs and then you select when you want to view them (icon at the top of the messenger contact window)

Why is this question in blue?

I like to throw this question into everyone FAQ I do. Check out the last one here.

The Official Sharing Folders Cheat-Sheet

Fri, 10 Mar 2006 18:00:48 GMT

guest posted by Jasmine

Hey there – I’m Jasmine, and I’m a Sharing Folders addict. (I also happen to be a WLM Program Manager who works on Sharing Folders, but hey, who’s counting?) Like vampirism, the common cold, and the sweet, sweet smell of fresh-baked cookies, love for Sharing is one of those things that can’t help but spread far and wide. Plus, sharing stuff with your buddies is good clean fun – just ask this guy.

Hats-off to those of you who’ve been adventurous enough to test out Sharing Folders in our beta. For those of you who haven’t, there’s still room in the Sharing Folders Club! We’re all out of decoder rings, but click that “Share files” button in the conversation window and watch the magic happen.

As you can imagine, those of us on the Sharing team know all the ins and outs of this guy by now. So whip out those Sharpie pens and pull up those sleeves, ‘cuz here’s the official, WLM-endorsed Sharing Folders Cheat-Sheet .

In order of increasing obscurity

Drag & drop files into the sharing window & keep the originals intact

We wrote some super-special handy code to copy, not move, the stuff you drag and drop into a sharing folder, so you’ll still have those original copies.

Drag & drop files onto a buddy in the main window

Drag & drop has been in the main window for awhile now, but we decided to take that guy and use him for our own twisted devices. Now, if you drag & drop files on a sharing buddy, they’ll be added automatically to your sharing folder.

Click "Add Files" in the sharing window and multi-select files to share

Hated that old file-transfer dialog that made you select files one at a time? Yeah, we did too. So here it is, our special Sharing Folders dialog – hold down Shift and multi-select those bad boys:

Use the shortcuts under My Computer or My Docs in the ‘Save As…’ dialog

Want a shortcut to save a file directly into a sharing folder? Look no more: In the standard ‘Save As…’ dialog, click My Documents > My Sharing Folders and navigate to the right folder. (There’s also a shortcut under My Computer if you happen to be a “My Computer” kinda person.)

Share files with yourself

Hey, have you ever felt a little lonely late at night and thought: ‘Man, I really, really wish I could share files with myself’? Well, you’re not the only one. Come to think of it, all you should meet each other. Until then, try this nifty trick: Set up different Messenger accounts on each of your machines, make them all buddies, and start sharing files among them. Yes, this may have some weird doppelganger/alternate universe/John Malkovich effect, but hey, at least you shared those files with somebody out there.

Sync this baby now!

Ok, this one’s really cool. Have something you absolutely have to share with a buddy asap? Just open your sharing folder, add the file, and keep the window open. You’ll see the “Synchronizing” status at the bottom kick in immediately because we prioritize that transfer when you’re looking at it. Yep, you’re just that awesome!

Got any cool ideas for features we can add to Sharing Folders? Want to tell us how you’re using Sharing Folders to take over the world? Post a comment!