MSN Messenger has been offline since April 2013, except for China, where it lingered a bit longer. WhatsApp and other mobile messengers now rule the world, yet a niche community still enjoys the classic chat experience. Believe it or not, you can use MSN Messenger in 2023—provided you accept a much smaller user base. The first step is to visit the official Escargot page and follow its instructions.
Love that never was, spontaneous hatred, broken hearts and reconciliations, late-night sessions in hidden internet cafes, winks, emoticons, buzzes… the MSN Messenger era was a whirlwind. And none of that will come back—no point fooling ourselves.
Today we’ve been assimilated by the coldness and immediacy of mobile messengers. The most human aspect of MSN Messenger is in the past, but from a technical perspective, nothing stops us from using it in 2023. Would you like to know how? The people behind Escargot have done all the heavy lifting for us.
How to Use MSN Messenger in 2023 with Escargot
The Download section of the official site offers downloads for several MSN and Windows Live Messenger editions, though it’s wise to start with the version recommended by Escargot. It works like this: you grab an official installer and apply a patch that modifies its files to redirect all requests to new servers. The Escargot site also provides detailed instructions for patching older MSN Messenger versions.
Naturally, some technical details can’t be ignored. First, Escargot won’t work until you’ve created and activated an account (the confirmation email often lands in your spam folder, so check there). Second, your password for Escargot/MSN can’t exceed 16 characters when using the recommended client (otherwise you’ll get a login error 80048821), even though the registration page says 8 to 20.
The rest is a matter of adding contacts and starting to chat. I suspect it won’t be easy to convince other users to join Escargot and replicate the whole installation process on their machines, but the site shares live connection stats, and at the time of writing it reports more than 700 people online. Another option is to access the web version of Escargot—however, it’s just not the same. Try MSN Messenger in 2023!
Official site and downloads:Click here
