It’s the end of an era as Microsoft retires its once extremely popular messaging service, Windows Live Messenger
The idea is to move everyone to Skype with transitioning users being promised benefits like Skype calling credits or other discounts. The transition will merge the existing Windows Live account with Skype.
Once known as MSN Messenger, Windows Live was among the first social networking and instant messaging platforms in the time before smartphones and Facebook. Its companions from that time like ICQ and AIM have already retired, so it was only a matter of time before Windows Live went down the same path.