Microsoft has announced that it will begin migrating Windows Live Messenger users over to Skype from 8 April, after initially suggesting the move would happen in mid-March.
The firm made the announcement on its Skype blog post and claimed the process will "take a few weeks to complete".
"We'll start the upgrades with our English language clients, and finish up with Brazilian Portuguese on April 30 or later," noted Parri Munsell, director of marketing integration for Skype.
The Windows Messenger service was launched in 1999 and was one of the dominant instant messaging services in the early 00s. However, the service has failed to compete with products such as Skype and Whatsapp, which are available on a variety of platforms.
With Microsoft purchasing Skype for $8.5 billion in 2010, it was only a matter of time until the Messenger service was going to be retired. Skype currently has 280 million users worldwide and one of the key features is the ability to communicate cross-platform as it is available on the Mac, iOS, Windows Phone, Android and will be launched on the Blackberry 10 OS in the near future.
Microsoft is keen to highlight the benefits the switch to Skype will bring. These will include the ability to:
- Save instant message conversation history
- Edit and remove instant messages
- Share files and contact information
- Initiate video calls and message Facebook friends
- Carry out group video calling
