Microsoft’s Windows Messenger service to be switched off in March

Microsoft’s Windows Messenger service to be switched off in MarchAmid the hubbub of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2013 in Las Vegas, bigwig software company Microsoft revealed in an announcement that it will close its Windows Messenger service in March this year.

The announcement marks the execution of Microsoft's November-disclosed plans to pull the plug on its popular but outdated Windows Messenger instant messaging service.

According to an email which Microsoft sent to its Windows Messenger users this week, the service will be switched off on March 15, 2013; after which the Messenger logins will stop working. However, the company also revealed that the move will not affect users' Windows Live IDs; and also that Messenger's operations in China will continue because it is run under licence in that country.

Evidently, the decision to kill the Windows Messenger service has prompted Microsoft to divert the users of the service to Skype, which not only offers the `instant messaging' advantage, but also facilitates audio and video chat. In fact, when Microsoft acquired Skype for $5.2 billion in May 2011, analysts had speculated that the company would move to amalgamate the competing services of Messenger and Skype.

Substantiating that viewpoint, Microsoft said in its official mail to the Messenger users that the decision to retire the existing Messenger service globally (except in China) on March 15 will help the company in "bringing the great features of Messenger and Skype together."