Microsoft Makes Windows Live Messenger Available to BlackBerries

The good folks over at Messenger Stuff have spotted a download link on the Blackberry web site for Windows Live Messenger (a set of Terms and Conditions must be accepted). In other words, the world's most popular instant messaging network can now be accessed from the official client on the world's most popular smartphone. Instant messages (including group chats) are sent and received using BlackBerry push technology. Windows Live Messenger for BlackBerry also allows the user to set custom status messages, log chats, show a Display Picture, use 60+ emoticons, and even send and receive pictures and files. The client is simple and lightweight, and aesthetically it isn't half bad.

Back in May, Research in Motion (RIM) and Microsoft made an announcement detailing that Windows Live services were arriving on the Blackberry platform. "Sometime this summer" apparently translated to July, at least for the mobile version of Windows Live Messenger. RIM and Microsoft previously said that "multiple languages" would be supported, but now we know that the client is available in Arabic, Chinese (China), Chinese (Taiwan), Czech, Dutch (Netherlands), English, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish. Windows Live Hotmail for Blackberry doesn't seem to have arrived yet, but we'll keep you posted when it does. Both Windows Live services are available by signing into a Windows Live account just once.