Microsoft to replace Windows Live Messenger with Skype: Report

Microsoft is getting ready to retire Windows Live Messenger client in favour of Skype, according to a report in The Verge. (Update: Microsoft has officially confirmed the plans and shared a timeline for the migration).

Microsoft is working towards retiring its Windows Live Messenger client in favor of Skype. The Verge has learned through several sources that Microsoft's Windows Live Messenger service will be retired in the coming months and integrated into Skype. Microsoft has slowly been moving people over to the Messenger backend for Skype over the past few months, with around 80 percent of all IMs sent on Skype being handled by Messenger.

The company will announce the retirement of Windows Live Messenger soon, possibly as early as this week according to sources.

Skype, that was acquired by Microsoft in May 2011, has been synonymous with voice/ video calling since launch but, of course, has text-based chatting (IM) support built-in as well. The latest version of Skype (version 6) paved the way for Windows Live Messenger integration by letting users login with their Microsoft credentials, aside from adding Facebook integration as well.

Skype version 6 signals Microsoft's desire to closely integrate Skype into its own ecosystem and moving Windows Live Messenger users to the feature-rich Skype would be the next logical step.