An official Windows Live Messenger application coming to the Android market on April 11, 2011. Interestingly, unlike its iOS counterpart, this app is developed by Miyowa – the same company that developed the "official" Windows Live Messenger app on the Windows Phone marketplace.
We’re not sure why they’re choosing to outsource development of a messenger that many people have been waiting for, but we can’t doubt Miyowa’s ability without having actually used one of their apps. It should be noted that several features from its WP7 counterpart are expected to be omitted, such as file transfer.
This app will be free but ad-supported, and will be compatible with all devices with Android 1.6 or later. The app will feature push notifications and multi-tasking.
While it is good to see Microsoft expanding it’s Windows Live services across multiple mobile platforms, we definitely hope to see Microsoft focusing more effort on their own mobile platform – Windows Phone 7. With MIX 11 coming up next week, perhaps we might hear about official Windows Live Messenger integration in Windows Phone 7 coming as part of their upcoming "Mango" update? Wishful thinking? We hope not.
