Following all the excitement over MWC and Windows Phone 7 Series it seems like things are returning to normal with a new leaked image of Windows Live Wave 4 Messenger from messenger adictos via Liveside.
It appears there are some new features in this picture which Liveside cover very well and outline the features as being new social network integration, comment on updates from Windows Live, better SkyDrive and Photos integration, new features such as MSN and Games and new emoticons.
That middle column is a Facebook feed which I think will be very useful and I would hope that aspects of its design and function have been taken from Microsoft’s facebook Silverlight app. I am concerned that we have all been used to a very vertical messenger before that this new horizontal version might be quite jarring for users, it would be good if it possible to separate columns or at least turn some off.
Some of this is very interesting and I can’t help but think it feels similar in some ways to the “people” hub on Windows Phone 7 Series. Perhaps Microsoft are positioning Messenger to be the social hub on the desktop like Zune Software will be for music and videos, it makes sense.
Whatever we might see in Messenger I am sure glad to see a lot more integration in new products from Microsoft with its own services and other complimentary ones.
Edit: I have been informed that the above image is actually an internal concept image for Windows Live Wave 4 Messenger and not an image of a working version.
