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It seems Messages really is just a beta for Lion and will never see a production release on OS X 10.7, at least according to a bit of digging done by the French Mac-hounds over at Consomac.
The text strings within the app clearly show that they’ll be a point in time where Messages ceases to work on Lion, forcing you to upgrade to Mountain Lion to continue using it. It’s a shame Apple looks like it’s going to cut Lion users off from Messages, especially as not every Intel-Mac will be able to run Mountain Lion.
Of course it’s not for definite yet; it’s still in beta. Apple might just make it a Mac App Store purchase like it did with the first release of FaceTime before it was bundled with Lion. We’ll have to wait until Mountain Lion is released in “late summer” to find out. [Consomac via MacRumors]
So the “the Future of IM” http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2012/02/os-x-messages-this-is-the-future-of-im/ is apparently not only not cross platform but not cross version of the same platform. Of course I accept that we don’t know this for sure, but given Apples past behaviour I wouldn’t bet against it.
It will likley be in the app store for a mere 69p as stated in the artical. the beta messages app is cross platform with AIM and others, and i bet when it comes out fully it will include a lot more cross platform services (i.e. Facebook chat, one of the many cross phone OS IM apps etc…) Hopefully anyway
Oh, now that is a kick in the nuts – if it happens. Gah, it’s like Spotify all over again, they seduce you in with unlimited beta and then screw you over…
P.S – I haven’t got it to work yet. My only friend is ‘offline’ just now and computer says no. Doesn’t offer to hang onto the message, or fire it off to a server or anything, it just says no.
You only have one friend? You need to get out more