João Ribeiro, published a post on his TechNet Blog a few days ago about a new release of Windows Live for Windows Phone. In this article I will provide an overview of Windows Live for Windows Phones, and hopefully I can find the new improvements of this release and highlight them.

Most of you probably do know the concept of Windows Live and the Windows Live Essentials applications, which e.g. include Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Writer, Windows Live Photo Gallery and Windows Live Movie Maker, from the Windows Desktop.

Windows Live for Windows Phones components

However I would like to start with a kind of functional description from Windows Live for Windows Phones product page:

“Get the full Windows Live experience – including e-mail, instant messaging, contacts, what’s new feed, photos, people, profile and more – right on your Windows phone for free!”

In the screenshot left above you can see the new version number of Windows Live for Windows Phones, and the different installed components. These components perfectly reflect the functional product description above, while the right screenshot shows the new Windows Live Messenger icon (with the yellow swoosh) in the Windows Mobile 6.5 start menu.

Hotmail or Windows Live mail

One of the major components of Windows Live is Windows Live Mail, previously called Hotmail. Back in August 2009 I wrote an article about Windows Live Mail and the push mail functionality on Windows Phones. Therefore I won’t elaborate that much on the Windows Live Mail component, since my conclusions was:

“Combining this e-mail push on Windows Live Mail, with a set of additional free tools like Microsoft MyPhone, Evernote and the proposed Sianix Calendar Sync, users are able to gain an almost-complete Microsoft Exchange experience for free.”

Windows Live Messenger

The second major component of Windows Live for Windows Phones is the Messenger Instant Messaging client. Windows Live Messenger is a large player in the instant messaging field, and both the screenshots above show that the Windows PC experience is brought to the Windows Phone.

Even some more advanced feature like sending and receiving voice clips from and to a Windows Phone isn’t a problem. Personally this is the component of Windows Live for Windows Phone which I most often use. Simply to stay in touch with friends, while you are on the go. With a flat free cellular data subscription this is far more cost efficient that sending a text message.

Bing Search

The third component of Windows Live for Windows Phones is the search component. In the screenshots of the August 2009 article you can see that Windows Live Search was integrated into the Windows Live bundle for Windows Phones. In the meantime Windows Live Search is “replaced” with Microsoft Bing for Mobile. Bing embodies more or less all search activities of Microsoft, and can be found on a few places in Windows Live: 

1. Windows Live Home screen;
2. Windows Live Home People screen;
3. Windows Mobile Today screen;

I furthermore assume, but not 100% sure, that Windows Live for Windows Phones and Microsoft Bing for Mobile perfectly integrate. At least that would be a great scenario, so if anyone has tested this yet please drop a comment. Sean Ludwig, Editor of PCMag.com, has written a great review about Microsoft Bing for Mobile.

While the Bing Search component of Windows Live for Windows Phones integrates with the “old” Windows Mobile todayscreen, like shown in the right screenshot above, it doesn’t integrate with the renewed Windows Mobile 6.5 todayscreen !!

Contacts

Another major component in Windows Live for Windows Phones is contacts or people. This isn’t a big surprise since most of the major components are aimed at inter-human-communication via voice, instant message or simply via e-mail.

Please have a look at Microsoft Outlook Connector first which, enables you to integrate Windows Live Mail with Microsoft Outlook in an Microsoft Exchange like experience !! Contacts management is one of the best parts of the Microsoft Exchange – Microsoft Outlook combination, which also comes to Windows Live in a more advanced form.

The screenshot above lets you choose to store your Windows Live contacts on your Windows Phone and integrate for example with an existing Microsoft Exchange contact. In my situation I have kept these separated, so I unchecked the option, while I remember this integration part caused some problems in a previous release because of the option wether or not to integrate.

Windows Live Contacts furthermore form a significant ingredient to the Windows Live Social Network ”strategy” ! 

Windows Live Home

The last component that has undergone the most changes, in my perception is the Windows Live Home component. At first you can see the Bing search integration in the left screenshot above. 

You might remember that Microsoft has given Windows Live for PC a social network makeover, and now some of the features are coming to Windows Live for Windows Phone as well. When I hit the Windows Live Home button, from the Windows Live screen (left screenshot) I’m redirected to my Windows Live “Social Network” page, featuring the “What’s New” tab which is shown in the right screenshot above. It gives a kind of Facebook Live Feed experience, and shows the status updates in your Windows Live social network.

Furthermore you can upload photos and pictures taken with your Windows Phone or stored on your Windows Phone, and post them to your Windows Live ”Social Network” page. It would make sense if there is an underlying integration with Windows Live Photo Gallery, unfotunately I haven’t installed it on my Lenovo X60 tablet.

The final tab you can access through the Windows Live Home screen is the “People” tab. In the right screenshot above you see that your Windows Live (Messenger) Contacts are shown and you are also able to search accross these contacts.

Concluding thoughts and wrap-up 

Unfortunately the Windows Live release notes of this latest version aren’t updated yet, but my personal feeling is that the largest improvements can be found in the Windows Live Home and Bing Search integration part.

What I can experience is that the Microsoft three-screen-and-a-cloud-strategy is bringing a quasi-similar experience to the end-user no matter if you are working on a Windows PC or a Windows Phone. Look for example at the Windows Live Messenger, which is almost as feature rich on a Windows Phone as on a Windows PC.

If you combine this with the experiences from the article: “Windows Live Mail pushed to Windows Phone” you can only conclude that Windows Live for Windows Phones is a highly valuable suite for both the mobile professional as well as the average end-user !!

No matter if you have a Windows touch Phone or a Windows non-touch Phone, Windows Live is updated for both types of devices. So please head your browser over to http://wl.windowsmobile.com and download your copy of the latest version and let us know what you think of the improvements.