Earlier this week came widespread reports that Microsoft would be retiring its widely used Messenger service on March 15th, forcing all users to switch to using Skype for instant messaging. From ArsTechnica:

This information came from an e-mail that Microsoft has started sending to Messenger users (though not yet all of them; I've still not received it) informing them of the need to switch from the current Messenger client to the new Skype client in order to keep chatting to their friends.

This presented an immediate problem. What about all the people—and there are many of them—not using the regular, official, Messenger client for Windows? For example, Windows Phone integrates Messenger chat into its messaging hub, but can't communicate with the Skype network at all. As much as I'd like to see Microsoft roll out an update for both Windows Phone 7 and 8 to add Skype support to the messaging hub in the next two months, it's highly unlikely.

Microsoft Messenger Service not going anywhere just yet