Microsoft has added one more feature to attract Gmail users to its new Outlook.com. Now, Microsoft’s Outlook.com supports Google talk instant messaging.
Microsoft has implemented this via Google Talk API. At this moment, only text conversation is possible. Users can not make video calls or audio calls via outlook.com.
“Today, we’re excited to announce that you can now also chat with your Google friends. With this feature, the next time you’re reading an email from someone who uses Gmail, you can reply with a quick chat right from your Outlook.com inbox,” Microsoft announced in blog post.
When Microsoft retire Hotmail, it promised to add more and more features to Outlook.com in regular updates. Outlook.com has more than 400 million users and increasing fast. With this feature, Microsoft wants to attract Gmail users, so that they can easily use Outlook.com while chatting with their Gmail friends.
“When you open the Messaging pane in Outlook.com or SkyDrive, you’ll see a message that helps you set up chat with your Google contacts. Just click it to get started; setup will only take a minute,” company explained.
You need to authorize Microsoft to access your contacts and chat messages. After that, you will see all Google contacts appearing at the side bar of Outlook.com. To start the conversation, search the contact and then click on it to start conversation.
This new messaging experience will be available in inbox, people and Skydrive. This feature will be available to everyone in next few days. It is rolling out slowly, so you will have to wait for few days to get this feature.
