Microsoft has made a significant update to its Windows Live Messenger application for the iPhone, bringing the app to version 1.1.
The update includes a number of new features; such as improved social networking capabilities by allowing you to better integrate your Facebook account directly with the app.
Integrating the app with your Facebook account allows you use Facebook chat directly and view updates from friends. However, the native Facebook app for the iPhone is far more comprehensive and already offers Facebook chat.
Additionally, you cannot integrate Facebook with the app directly from your iPhone. You must go to the Services section by logging into your Windows Live profile from your computer.
The update also includes better iOS 4 support by bringing true multitasking. If you switch to another application, the app remains opened in the background and you could continue where you left off when tasking back to the app. However, icon resolutions were not optimized for the iPhone’s new high resolution Retina display.
From the main Social tab, you can easily update your status and view a stream of updates from your Windows Live contacts and Facebook. The app also lets you check your Live email easily in a nicely designed interface.
In our testing, we found messages were delivered fairly quickly, but still with delays up to ten seconds, something BlackBerry users would definitely argue is unacceptable. Replying to messages took even longer to get delivered. We also found loading emails within the app was not as quick, but once they loaded, the app was very smooth.
You could get the free updated app by going to the App Store on your iOS device.