Microsoft seems to be in a developer friendly mood this year. With the opening of the Kinect API and trying to attract developers with a really good revenue sharing arrangement, Microsoft has announced that they will be opening its Windows Live Messaging network with XMPP.
For those not in the know, XMPP is an open standard messaging protocol. Since it is open, networks supporting the standard can use several different messaging apps on different protocols. This includes Facebook Chat, Google Talk and Nokia’s Ovi.
This move does mean that now you can have Messenger on any platform rather than using its own protocol or its own official application. For those wanting to tinker away at the code, Microsoft has released some code samples on GitHub – yes, I know, Microsoft using GitHub. Times have really changed from their old monopoly mindset.
This also puts Messenger in line with some of its Live Services. Live ID supports OAuth, which Twitter uses for connecting your profile to applications; Exchange connectivity for Hotmail and creating a API for SkyDrive.