There has been a lot of activity around the Messenger world in the past week regarding Windows Live Messenger 9.0. Internal builds are ready and are indeed being passed around to the internal beta team. Included in this alpha version of WLM 9.0, are new API components. We've been told that there is a new UI that millions of users requested when Windows Live Messenger 8.0 was released worldwide.

This new API includes some very neat Vista sidebar gadgets, such as a contact and their status. Clicking on the docked contact would allow you to open a chat, drag text, drag-and-drop files, images, and music automatically. A Messenger Lite version with no more than 600 lines of code but includes many features that Windows Live Messenger 8.0 has.

A release date has not been announced, but thanks to Paul we've been told that Windows Live Messenger 9.0 should reach managed beta phase by early December to late December.

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