The first time this happened, I wasn’t sure I’d quit correctly. It then sits there for a second and finally closes the remaining window, and goes away. It’s a multi-stage process, in which the program closes chat windows, then logs out of the Messenger service. There is also one behavior of Messenger that is just puzzling, and that’s the way it quits.

I could not imagine trying to get this to work with Messenger. The lack of multiprotocol/multiple account support is particular annoying for someone like me, who, for work alone has three IM accounts.

You can use Bonjour to talk to other Messenger users on the same network, so that’s handy. Unlike iChat’s support for AOL Instant Messenger, (AIM) and Jabber, an open IM protocol used by companies such as Apple and Cisco, Messenger supports Messenger, and that’s it. Unlike iChat, which has an extensive AppleScript dictionary that not only allows you to customize program behavior, but automate message replies, sends, and file transfers, Messenger has just enough AppleScript support to let you start and quit the application.Ĭlean UI: Messenger works well enough, but has many limits that won’t make you switch from your current IM client.ĭo you want to talk to someone not using the Messenger protocol? Good luck. This usually led to accidental one-way chats. Sometimes it worked, sometimes not, but there was no way to see what was going on. In my testing, getting two-way video to work was spotty. You can’t do one-way video chats either-at least, not on purpose. While iChat has a solid set of A/V preferences-you can choose your audio source, set up Bluetooth headsets, set bandwidth limits, make sure your video source is working before you try a call, check your audio levels, test your connection, and selectively enable audio or video-Messenger doesn’t have many at all: you can start an audio only call, an audio/video call, and that’s it.

File transfers are annoying: In iChat, dropping a file into the chat window only stages the file transfer in Messenger, once you drop the file, you’re sending. You can change the account you’re monitoring, but you can’t have multiple accounts active at the same time. Do you have multiple accounts you’d like to monitor at the same time? You can’t with Messenger.

Microsoft office communicator install