Instantly connect to the people who matter the most, via text, voice, or video. Even if they’re offline, you can leave a message or send a note.

Choose from a variety of status messages for any occasion. Use Windows Live Contacts to control your personal information (who sees it and what they see).

Share your personal files, photos, and videos of any size. Just drag and drop into a Shared Folder.

i’m is a new initiative from Windows Live Messenger. Every time you start a conversation using i’m, Microsoft shares a portion of the program's advertising revenue with some of the world's most effective organizations dedicated to social causes. We've set no cap on the amount we'll donate to each organization. The sky's the limit. There's no charge, so join now and put our money where your mouth is.

• Works with Windows Live OneCare Family Safety: If you use Family Safety, built-in contact approval helps you know exactly who your kids are talking to. You approve or disapprove each new contact for their Windows Live Messenger, and whether they can use Messenger.
• Talk to more of your friends, including those on Yahoo!: With Windows Live Messenger, you can connect with your Yahoo! Messenger with Voice contacts. It's as easy as adding their Yahoo! e-mail addresses. Forget needing multiple accounts to talk to all your friends, you'll be able to see when they're online and communicate with them from one place.
• PC-to-PC Calling: Speak your mind: Have a high-quality voice conversation using PC-to-PC Calling. Free.
• Even better video conversations: Those old science fiction movies with TV phones? That's what the new Messenger will give you, only better: live, full-screen (640x480) video.
• Sharing Folders: Drag a file onto a contact’s name. You’ve just created a Sharing Folder. Now you and your contact can get to all the files in the folder any time, even if one of you is offline.
• Text message their phones: See a little mobile icon next to a friend's name? Just right click to send a text message.
• Your two-way, super-powered address book: With Windows Live Contacts, whenever your contacts update their information, it will also be changed in your Messenger address book(Your Windows Live Hotmail address book will be updated, too).
• Windows Live Alerts: Headlines, sports scores, traffic, or just about anything else you want to keep up with, get pop-up notifications of things as they happen.