Microsoft confirmed in a blog posting that it plans to release a beta version of Messenger for Mac 8 in March 2010.
The Mac team at Microsoft have been working hard to include A/V support in Messenger for Mac. The A/V support is cross-platform compatible and will work with Windows Live Messenger. Once Messenger for Mac 8 arrives, Mac users will be able to share webcam and audio conversations with each other and their Windows counterparts.
The team first demonstrated the A/V support at MacWorld 2009 earlier this year. A planned beta, promised for 2009, never arrived due to some set backs implementing the A/V support. A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed "progress has been slower than expected due to the challenge of connecting to the most current A/V code running on the Windows Live servers. We will not have a beta available in 2009, but we are close: we are in "dogfood", and we plan to have the beta available to you by next March."
Thanks to GeekWord for the news tip