With the release of MSN Messenger 7.5 in August 2005, Microsoft introduced a protocol handler which allows us to integrate MSN Messenger (and later Windows Live Messenger) into our MSN Spaces, personal blogs or other websites with the use of special HTML codes. Here's an overview of the four uses of the msnim protocol handler with hyperlink examples:

1. msnim:add - Allow your visitors to add you to their MSN contacts immediately. Example: <a href="msnim:add?contact=email@address.com ">Add me to your MSN Messenger contact list</a>
2. msnim:chat - Clicking this link will open a conversation with email@address.com and allows instant chatting. Example: <a href="msnim:chat?contact=email@address.com ">Click here to chat</a>
3. msnim:voice - Allow your visitors to start Voice chatting with you in just one click. Example: <a href="msnim:voice?contact=email@address.com ">Start a Voice chat with me</a>
4. msnim:video - Launches a Video conversation straight from a web page. Example: <a href="msnim:video?contact=email@address.com ">Start a Video chat with me</a>.

In each case the visitor is required to be logged into MSN Messenger 7.5 or higher. One's privacy settings and reaction speed to the warning prompts and invitation requests will eventually influence the "instant" character of these codes.