MSN Messenger FAQ > What are Dynamic Display Pictures?

In early betas of MSN Messenger 7 a subcategory called Dynamic Display Pictures used to appear in the My Display Picture menu. Formerly referred to as Deluxe Display Pictures, this special type of MSN Display Pictures is supposed to change automatically according to your mood.

We haven't seen them in action yet but we expect them to be distributed as packs of animated display pictures (or animated avatars) downloadable from the following MSN content partners:

American Greetings/Blue Mountain
WisePost (Korea)
3H (Sweden, France, Germany)
SawYou (UK, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands).

UPDATE: There are two ways to use this feature:

1) Using emoticons like crying MSN emoticon and in your conversation will trigger the Dynamic Display Picture to express emotions corresponding to the smileys. If you're the kind of chatter who types more emoticons than two syllable words, you better turn this option off.

2) By clicking an option called "Change mood to" or right-clicking your Dynamic Display Picture, you will be able to set your DDP according to your current mood. As soon as it has finished loading, it appears on both your and your contact's screen.

If you decide to delete a Dynamic Display Picture it cannot be recovered, so think twice because unless you got it from Mess.be you probably paid for it.

Thanks to a tip from Alpha Binary we expect Dynamic Display Pictures to be Macromedia Flash files, rather than animated GIFs. This could also explain why this feature has been temporarily disabled due to heightened security.

When Dynamic Display Pictures are enabled again (maybe in March or April 2005?), a new build higher than 7.0.0604 will probably be issued by Microsoft. And here's how you'll be able to add them:

1. Click the Tools menu, and then click Change Display Picture. (If menu choices don't appear at the top of your window, you may have hidden your window frame. Click in the upper left corner, or press ALT to restore it.)

2. Click Create a Dynamic Display Picture.

3. On the MSN partner site, create and download the dynamic display picture you want to use. The picture will be automatically installed.

Naturally, Mess with MSN Messenger plans to offer FREE Dynamic Display Pictures through our CustoMess for MSN Messenger software.

Also check out the hundreds of mood MSN Display Pictures we've been offering for FREE since July 2003.

msn dynamic display pictures

Soul
December 29, 2004 at 3:13pm

AIM has Dynamic Display Pictures for AOL users, they are pictures that react to certain words you say, and i very funny at times

Kate
December 31, 2004 at 3:37am

Sounds like the rebirth of Microsoft Comic Chat

There used to be this program called Microsoft Comic Chat, and you used to be able to make your own character with a variety of emotions, like upset, angry, coy, happy, etc and then other people in chatrooms could see the character. You could chose the background of your conversation and the character would appear there with a speechbuble on the background saying in the emotion you chose what you said. Interesting idea to incorperate into MSN tho.

Alex <alexandrewilson79@hotmail.com>
January 1, 2005 at 9:36pm

WTF?

WTF? that ****s!!!! i dont want f*cking flash files as my animated dp!!! i ave a TON of really cool gif's ive been collecting!!! that ****S ass..