On the back-end, in the months after Microsoft's acquisition of Skype was finalized, the pair have been moving Skype to use the Windows Messenger infrastructure. However, in October, Skype began testing new Windows and Mac beta releases that allowed users to sign in using their Windows Live ID (Microsoft Account) so they could send and receive instant messages and see presence information from those using Messenger.

In late October, Skype officials said that Skype would most likely will replace Messenger some day, but declined to provide a public timetable. (Business instant messaging will still be largely the province of Microsoft's Lync, though Lync-Skype federation is coming at some point.) By that time, consumers who want to use instant messaging will have no choice but to use Skype for that. ' We will retire Messenger in all countries worldwide in the first quarter of 2013 (with the exception of mainland China where Messenger will continue to be available),' according to the post. The planned cutover date is quite aggressive: It's Q1 2013, according to a new Skype blog post. On November 6, the Skype team provided more information about its recently stated plans to ultimately replace Windows Live Messenger with Skype. We've heard there's a Windows Phone 8 Skype client coming - though it's still not in the Windows Phone Store and Skype reps are not sharing more on when it will be. We've already seen and now used the new Windows 8 Skype client. After months of leaked bits, Microsoft's Skype division is finally opening the informational tap.

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