MSN Messenger was the most entertaining platform for people to communicate with each other when Facebook was not yet in our lives and some people did not even have a phone.
MSN, which emerged at the end of the 90s and has been an indispensable part of people’s lives for years, was gradually erased from our lives and was completely closed in 2013.
First, let’s reminisce about the past…
We had friends with whom we talked for hours on MSN as if we hadn’t spoken during the day when we came home after a whole day at school. The “flirting” method of the period was to activate the “what am I listening to” section, to play a referential song and to send a kiss animation.
şєкιℓℓι иι¢кℓєяℓє ιѕιмℓєяιмimizι ѕüѕℓєя∂ιк and for some reason we used to think we were “cool” by writing some letters in uppercase and some letters in lowercase. “You can’t send vibrations that often.” We looked at the warning.
If that’s enough nostalgia for you to reminisce about the old days, let’s take a look at how MSN Messenger came to be.
E-mail was the most popular communication tool for computer users in the 90s. However, it lacked the fun and enjoyment of instant messaging. For this, an “instant messaging program” was needed.
When the mainstream internet movement was on the rise, there were 4 competitors fighting to meet this need: AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ, Yahoo! Messenger and Microsoft MSN Messenger. Looking back now, it’s clear who won the race.
In 1999, MSN Messenger entered our lives with great speed.
In 1999, ICQ and AOL had been operating for 3 years. The MSN Messenger, which appeared in July, was even late. However, this lateness did not prevent him from reaching the summit.
A very clever decision was made and it was planned to integrate with Microsoft’s Hotmail. This decision would capitalize on the popularity of the email service to offer instant communication to millions of users.
It reached more than 29 million users in a maximum of 2 years.
MSN Messenger, which was only an instant messaging service at the beginning, has risen over time by adding functions such as interface customization and facilitating file transfer.
In early 2001, the MSN Messenger service made it the most used instant messaging service worldwide, with over 29 million unique users.
Vibrations, smileys, webcams and more…
In addition to personalizing its interface, the “smileys” of that period, which we now call “emoji”, were very popular. You could send instant audio recordings, video chat with the webcam, play games with your friends simultaneously, send vibrations to attract the attention of the other person, and even send animations such as “boy throwing water balloons” to their screens.
All these features were a first and an extraordinary source of pleasure for that period. People were flocking to using MSN Messenger and wasting their hours here.
The collapse of an era: MSN Messenger started to lose blood slowly.
MSN Messenger, which changed its name to Windows Live Messenger, had removed many basic functions with its last few revisions. There were obvious errors and its safety was questioned.
For example, with version 9.0, the company removed some of the “default state” options, webcam settings, and even the legendary login sound that still rings in our ears.
Windows Live Messenger went into rapid decline when Skype was purchased.
In 2012, things took a turn for the worse when Microsoft forced Windows Vista and Windows 7 users to upgrade from an older version of the application to a newer version, and shortly thereafter discontinued support for Windows XP entirely. This was around the same time Microsoft bought Skype.
The importance of social media and the emergence of mobile devices cannot be underestimated.
With the spread of mobile devices and social media, people were looking for different ways to communicate with each other without being connected to a computer, and platforms were being developed for this.
While Microsoft has released mobile versions of Windows Live for many major platforms including iOS, BlackBerry and Windows Phone (it even added integration with Facebook chat), there were a number of factors that put Microsoft out of the game.
They tried to develop a new strategy with Skype.
In May 2011, Microsoft announced that it would buy Skype for $8.5 billion, and in November of the following year, we learned that Messenger would be migrated to Skype.
With the integration, Messenger users would still be able to communicate with their friends via Skype, but this would end the standalone version of Windows Live Messenger.
In 2013, Messenger went down in history with all our memories.
In April 2013, Windows began phasing out Live Messenger. If good decisions were made, perhaps MSN Messenger could be the WhatsApp or Snapchat of today. This is how a 15-year past was buried in history.
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