Right now, it’s hard for us to get too fancy. Naturally you can enjoy the most basic feature of instant messaging when you’re IMing with a Windows Live™ Messenger friend: IMing in text.

Plus you’ll both have access to a swell selection of emoticons, and will both see each other’s status in your contacts lists. You can even Buzz (or as they say in Windows Live parlance, “Nudge”) your Windows Live friends.

But for now, you can’t send files, photo share, play games, send IMVs, use plug-ins, use voice or have a voice conference with Windows Live users. Nor will Windows Live Messenger users see your avatar or Display Image. These features may appear in the future, but for now they’re only available to Yahoo! Messenger users. Yahoo! Messenger—fun, feature-packed, and free!