One could sum up the title question as knowing very little at all. Although this is partially true, when one scratches behind the surface detail a picture can be painted. Here is a sum up of the news finds I have found that might give us a clue to what may be present in Windows Live Messenger 2010.

The next version of Messenger should be included within the "Wave 4" phase of Windows Live products. This tends to be an annual occurrence, occurring within August, where the final product tends to be released with other Windows Live products during the new year. Of course this does not mean much, but logic has it we will start to hear more news within the next month or so. This is strengthened by Windows Live Messenger's 10th anniversary occurring within a couple of days. When I asked the Messenger development team if we can expect any announcements, they sent me this Twitter message:



So it appears the team have some plans lined up for the big day, and with the growing trend within the past month to chat more openly and post more blog entries on their MessengerSays development blog there are good reasons to suspect some details to surface about Windows Live Messenger 10.

Back in January one of our old news posters, Sean Bradford (now an editor at Neowin) managed to get the chance to interview some Windows Live directors. Below is an extract from questions relevant to Messenger:



There have been rumors about integration with other non-Microsoft services, specifically targeting social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter. I for one would like this feature, and TheBlasphemer has also expressed a desire for this to be the next step forward for Windows Live Messenger.

If we look back on what Windows Live Messenger 2009 was about, it essentially created the stable, polished IM client that had been absent since MSN Messenger 7 back in 2005. The constant design updates within Windows Live may also have reached an end, and this gives the impression that Windows Live Messenger 10 will feature some new and exciting features. However, this is just reasoned speculation, we'll have to wait and see what reality holds. Hopefully next week will shed some light on the topic.