messenger.msn.co.uk (Instant Messenger) > Reviews (174)

MSN is an Instant Messenger service - basically that means it's a way of communicating instantly with someone else who is online at the same time, so that you both can see the messages the instant that you've finished typing them and either pressed rtn or hit the send button. It's a great way to communicate with people, and although the idea has been around for a few years now, the current MSN system is the best incarnation yet.

To be honest, I'm quite a conservative person when it comes to PC's. I use Windows XP, Internet Explorer, and Outlook Express for example, these all being the systems that came bundled with the pc I have, and the ones I know best. I don't like change much, so although I have tried one or two other IM services over the years, this is the one I choose to stick to.

Set up is incredibly easy. Download the small piece of software from the www.msn.com website, and it takes you through it's own installation and asks if you want to add friends who you have on your e-mail set up. It also lets you add any other friends you choose. If you don't already have an e-mail address, they will offer you an msn or hotmail one when you go through the set up process too. - You do need an e-mail address to use MSN as that's how your friends will be able to add you to their lists.

When MSN starts up, you get an oblong box pops up each time you use it that has a button for you to click to sign yourself in. The oblong window then shows your list of contacts. Now contacts can be divided into groups. So you can have Family in one group, friends in another, work mates in a third etc. You can make all but the first category hidden if you want to, and you will know which people are online, and which aren't by the colour of the little icon next to their name. If there's a little Green square there, then they are Online, If it's Red then they're online but have marked themselves 'busy' - an excellent feature that protects you from people bugging you too much if you need to get on with things, but still lets them know you're online. Then there's yellowy orange for 'away' and pale blue for offline.

Talking to people is really easy and for me is the whole purpose of this software. You double click on their name and a new box window opens and it's in here that you talk. You type your message to them in the box at the bottom of the window, and then when you press the rtn button, or click send, it appears in the window above the box. That's the simple version of how to use MSN. In actual fact it's got one heck of a lot more going for it, and you can send files to your friends via it, you can play games with them through it, and if you have a camera, microphone and speakers, you can even have proper voice conversations with them where you can see what they're doing and they can see you too.

For me one of the most useful features is the ability to have conversations with more than one person at a time. My mum, sister in law and myself do this on quite a regular basis and it lets us all talk together and sort out our plans to get together with ease.

No phone calls, just all chatting online at the same time. It also means my sister in law who has a young baby doesn't have to fight her for the phone (She can't work out who's there and tries to look down it bless her!).

Another feature that I love and use a lot is that you have the ability to share files and pictures really easily with the person you're talking to. Now if they use the latest version of MSN like you, then for pictures it pops them into a box at the top of the screen, if however they're coming in on a different system or an older version of msn then it will appear as a file link that they need to click on to download to their computer. Either way is quite fast though, and does save having to go off and e-mail something across and then wait for the e-mail to arrive etc. It's all Instant here which for an impatient person like myself is fab!

I think my third favourite thing about MSN is that you can change the colours and way your msn system looks. There are several different 'skins' you can choose from - these are the background colours basically. But you can also alter the colour and font you use too, so I have mine set to use Comic Sans and Bright Pink for my text. My mum uses a different colour but the same font, and my sister in law uses a different font and colour. The different colour part of it makes multi-member conversations MUCH easier to read at a glance. I've been involved in conversations where there have been 6 or 7 people all talking together, and if you're all using the same font and colour it's much harder to see who's said what than it is when everyone has a different colour on the screen.

I also rather like the emoticons - these are little image representations of words or actions, and I have quite a few on my system. Some are quite simple like for example if I type the word 'cool' it comes up all blue and sparkly. If I type haha I get a round laughing face appears. This side of things is incredibly controllable and individual as you can 'nick' emoticons from other people you talk to by right clicking on the image in the conversation and copying it to your own. You can also download them from specialised sites too. It's also very controllable as you can set the key code (the bit you type to get the image) to pretty much whatever you want, so you could have the round laughing face only appear when you type RLF3 for example, so you can't do it by mistake, or you can be like me and have it appear instead of the phrase you were planning on using i.e. 'haha'. I love that it makes the chat a bit more interesting, and I can also do things like wave a hand for 'byebye' and I've got a round face blowing kisses set up for xx and a different one for XX too. Now I know in theory this is probably to interest the kids and stuff, but I'm 37 and I love it. In fact I can't think of anyone I know who doesn't use some custom emoticons to be honest and most of those on my msn are adults.

I think for me MSN is probably one of if not THE most important piece of software on my computer other than the connection to the internet.

It's my lifeline when I'm on my own at home (I'm disabled), and it lets me chat to others quickly and simply. It stops me from feeling lonely, and it lets me feel much more connected with people than I would without it. Every time they change and upgrade I feel a little lost for a bit, but it's something that is improving and growing with each change, so it's worth the discomfort while you get used to the next version as there's always something new and good about it.

Summary: A fab way to communicate with people that doesn't cost, and is easy to use.