Skip to content

Handy Mobile Features for Yahoo! Messenger

February 2, 2007 on 10:10 am | In Mobile |

I decided to blog about our mobile features because I’ve found that many of our users don’t know about them. I use the SMS feature a lot when I’m trying to reach friends on their mobile. It’s much easier for me to type a mobile text message (SMS) into an IM window than fumble around on my phone’s tiny dial pad. And if you like to be available to your friends, even when you’re away from your PC, you’ll love the “Sign out to Mobile” feature.

Save your thumbs – SMS from Messenger
If you know a friend’s mobile number, you can send the person text messages (SMS) right from Messenger for free. (Your friend will be charged any applicable fees by his or her carrier for receiving the SMS message.) To send an SMS, type your friend’s name or mobile phone number into the contact search box, and choose “Send SMS” from the drop-down menu. (You can also right click on a contact and choose “Send an SMS Message.”) Type your message in the IM window and click “Send.” When your friend replies, the message will come back to you in Messenger.

Stay available from your mobile phone
When I sign out of Messenger at night, I sign out to my mobile phone. This shows me as available to my friends but with the status message “I’m mobile” next to my name. If a friend IM’s me from Messenger, the message is forwarded to my phone as an SMS message. (You’ll be charged any applicable fees by your carrier for receiving the SMS message.)

To activate IM forwarding, start by registering your mobile phone. Then the next time you want to sign out of Messenger, click the Messenger menu and choose the “Sign in to [your mobile #]” option.

There are other ways to use Messenger on your mobile phone too. Many phones have Yahoo! Messenger pre-installed, and all you have to do is sign in with your Yahoo! ID and password. It’s typically free to sign in, and each message is billed as an SMS message. (SMS charges can vary by carrier; please check with your carrier.)

If you don’t have the Yahoo! Messenger application already on your phone, you can always use your mobile browser to go to yahoo.com and select Messenger.

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

43 Comments »

RSS Feed | TrackBack URI

  1. i wish 2 add myself in yahoo mobile

    Comment by Faisal — February 2, 2007 #

  2. Hi Faisal - You should go to this link to register your phone:
    http://mreg.msg.yahoo.com/messenger/add/promo.php

    Sarah Bacon

    Comment by Administrator — February 2, 2007 #

  3. Unfortunately, in my experience delivery of response SMS messages to Y!M is not reliable. I’ve never had a problem with delivery of outbound messages, but I’ve had inbound replies fail on several occasions.

    The feature really is fantastic, but I’m reluctant to use it for anything that might be 2-way and/or important due to this problem.

    Comment by Brant — February 2, 2007 #

  4. I have a brand new Pantech phone… Wont run Y! Go. So those of us with linux are still stuck at version 1 as well. So there is no way to set up any of these features. I’m begining to become disgruntled. All these neat ideas, and I can’t use a one of them… Why do we even bother with a company lightyears behind?

    Comment by Kenny — February 2, 2007 #

  5. I didn’t understand the problem of the voice service of the messenger so could u tell me the solution of the Voice problem? Mean I couldn’t call to mobile

    Comment by Rahel Tesfay — February 3, 2007 #

  6. So much for this “wonderful” idea. I tried to send an SMS to my girlfriends phone. As soon as I put the number in, it tells me that it can’t send SMs to said number. I clicked on “find out why”, and all it did was took me to the main page for the service. I found out that it’s crapola!!

    Comment by Mike — February 3, 2007 #

  7. i didnot understand excactly coause i donot know english so much but i want to know if it i can send sms for free or i must bye acriedet
    thank you sarah in any case
    bye bye
    Ahmed Elgazar
    Ahmedgz2007@yahoo.com

    Comment by Ahmed — February 3, 2007 #

  8. Hi Mike - I’m sorry to hear you had trouble sending an SMS. It could be that the your girlfriend’s carrier is not one we support. You can find out more here:

    http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/messenger/messenger8/mobile/mobileandwebcam-18.html

    Ahmed - please visit the same link to see the list of carriers we support in different countries. If you see the carrier listed, then you will be able to send SMS messages for free (no payment required but note that the friend you send the SMS to may be charged by their carrier for receiving the SMS message).  

    Sarah Bacon

    Comment by Administrator — February 3, 2007 #

  9. good idea

    Comment by explorer — February 4, 2007 #

  10. i cant understand.. it says u cans end an sms message to your friend,, but when u try it can get through… why

    Comment by michelle — February 4, 2007 #

  11. I have problem, ebcause, before I wrote: http://mobile.yahoo.com and sing in, and I can send some msn to cell phone of my friend, and wh I open it too, I received his comment and messenges too, but now I cann’t open it this we, because you change it. Please help me.. thanks, regards, Lorena..!!

    Comment by Lorena Salvo — February 5, 2007 #

  12. What is being done about the poor response time from Yahoo! regarding security issues in Yahoo! Messenger? There are several vulnerabilities in the BugTrac database that sit for months with no action from Yahoo! even though exploits are in the wild. Most recently a HTML injection vulnerability that can allow an attacker arbitrary remote code execution.

    Comment by Kevin Mazzone — February 6, 2007 #

  13. i cann’t send a massage to my girlfriend’s mobile.actually i don’t know how to send a massage to a mobile.please send me the instruction at my e-mail address as
    noman_sad@yahoo.com

    Comment by joy — February 9, 2007 #

  14. hey! i wanted to know if i could change my status message’I'm on sms’ when i sign into my mobile,to something else

    Comment by Ash — February 11, 2007 #

  15. i cant send messages to mobile . i dont know how to send the messages on mobile plz tell me.

    Comment by mohammadumar khan — February 11, 2007 #

  16. Why are European carriers not supported?
    Are we black sheep?
    Yahoo UK and Ireland?
    Don’t yahoo realise the difference between these two countries?

    personally most europeans are forced to use third party yahoo mobile logins because they don’t work on the official one and the fact you have to use wap 2.0 ongoing you’re charged every kb you have to do.

    Example is logging into these sites on wap.

    http://moby.ebuddy.com
    http://wap.ebuddy.com

    When we should have the option to recieve and send the messages to yahoo! buddies at the normal price of a text message.

    For a company that has a big european office in ireland you really neglect ireland as a whole on your products, disappointing really.

    Comment by Dermot — February 11, 2007 #

  17. now my status in my yahoo messenger is “i’m on sms”i want to logout from my mobile.i dont want any messages to cum to my mobile from yahoo messenger .so kindly help me about this

    Comment by kavitha — June 5, 2007 #

  18. now my status in my yahoo messenger is “i’m on sms”i want to logout from my mobile.i dont want any messages to cum to my mobile from yahoo messenger .so kindly help me about this

    Comment by joseph — June 18, 2007 #

  19. Joseph,

    To disable the “sign out to mobile” feature, go the Messenger menu and choose “Preferences”. In the General preferences, make sure the “Always sign in to my mobile device when I exit Messenger” box is UNCHECKED. Then click Apply, and then OK. Thanks,

    Sarah Bacon

    Comment by Administrator — June 18, 2007 #

  20. do I have to be signed in to the messenger to receive sms messages from a buddy? If so is setup required?

    Comment by shari — June 26, 2007 #

  21. I mean do i have to be signed in on the mobile device to receive sms from a buddy

    Comment by shari — June 26, 2007 #

  22. Hi Shari,

    If you sign out of Messenger into your mobile phone (e.g. IM forwarding - go here to set it up for your phone: http://mreg.msg.yahoo.com/messenger/add/promo.php), you do not have to be signed into Messenger on your phone to receive the messages your friends may send you from their PCs via Messenger. Your status will say “I’m mobile” on their friends list and when they send you an IM, it will get sent to your phone as an SMS. When you respond with a reply SMS, your friends receive it in Messenger. Hope that helps explain it,

    Sarah Bacon

    Comment by Administrator — June 26, 2007 #

  23. Hi it says how to delete but when I click on messenger and then preference then edit mobile device it brings up register a movile device. I am registered, so how do i delete this from my mobile?

    Comment by Bonnie — June 28, 2007 #

  24. Hi, do I have to pay when someone sends me an SMS from YM?

    and if ever I do reply, how much do I pay if I am using smart network in the Philippines to reply to someone’s YM message who is in America?

    Comment by Iya — August 10, 2007 #

  25. Hi Iya,

    If you are receiving an SMS from someone on Yahoo! Messenger, you are subject to the SMS fees your carrier charges you. It’s free to send the SMS for your friend, but for you to receive it you are subject to your carrier’s charges. Check with smart network to see what your SMS charges are. Thanks,

    Sarah Bacon

    Comment by Administrator — August 10, 2007 #

  26. hi,we have trouble signing in in the messenger 1.5 version.Some said its already expired.Is it true?If true,is there any new messenger version?how can we download it?yahoo go 2.0 has no messenger.Hope u can explain it to us clearly.My location BRUNEI.thanks.Jose Gisultura.

    Comment by junjie — August 30, 2007 #

  27. I used to be able to send SMS from YM to my friends mobile here in the Philippines (Smart and Globe), but now it seems it stopped working that way. What’s the problem, can u help me?

    Comment by Mhike — October 5, 2007 #

  28. Hello!
    My carrier charges airtime just for my phone to be logged into Yahoo. I was burning minutes everytime I closed YIM. So I unchecked the “Sign into mobile device when I exit Messenger” and thought that was it.
    Now every 4th or 5th time I close the messenger, that option is checked again without me doing it. And I am the only one who uses this computer. What’s a fella to do?

    Comment by Kenneth J. Schweighardt — October 27, 2007 #

  29. My friend changed her mobile number, and now I can’t figure out how to edit sms by getting rid of her old number and putting in the new one.

    Comment by Mark — November 11, 2007 #

  30. I would like to use sms in yahoo messenger but I notice that the UK is not on the list of countries. This really surprises me! Does this mean that yahoo does not support sms in yahoo messenger for everyone living in the UK? If there is a way forward, please can you let me know what it is.
    Thanks.

    Comment by Stephen Darlington — January 25, 2008 #

  31. Hi Stephen,

    Yes, that is correct. The UK is not currently supported. Yahoo! Messenger supports SMS messaging for the following countries and carriers:

    USA: AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile
    India: Vodaphone Essar, Airtel, Spice, Escotel, Reliance
    Malaysia: TMTouch
    Philippines: Smart, Globe
    Singapore: Singtel
    Thailand: AIS, DTAC

    Thanks,

    Sarah Bacon

    Comment by Administrator — January 25, 2008 #

  32. do you have any idea of how to open y! messenger through mobile phone without any charge? plz….. mail me… tnx!

    Comment by princess of death — February 11, 2008 #

  33. I want to get download Yahoo!Messenger.but i don’t know how to get it. i’m using Nokia N73.
    please.,help me..

    Comment by xmponx di Indonesia — February 26, 2008 #

  34. well a q:will i be charged for receiving messages from messenger ie..if my frnds message me i use aircel postpaid with sms cost 1rs per sms

    Comment by prem anand — March 13, 2008 #

  35. Hallo dear,

    when i receive an instant message from yahoo on my mobile and it 6 of them without reply. My friends can’t send more instant messages til i reply.

    The fun thing is that some i replied them, but now can’ send me more.

    i would like if there is any way i can reset it again, cuz i forgot the 92 id numbers to reply to them.

    pls help if u can

    txs

    Comment by barkat11 — March 15, 2008 #

  36. My carrier charges airtime just for my phone to be logged into Yahoo. I was burning minutes everytime I closed YIM. So I unchecked the “Sign into mobile device when I exit Messenger” and thought that was it.
    Now every 4th or 5th time I close the messenger, that option is checked again without me doing it. And I am the only one who uses this computer. What’s a fella to do?

    Comment by Kenneth J. Schweighardt — October 27, 2007 #

    Comment by ashish meena — May 6, 2008 #

  37. I m using i m on mobile service. when i log out i get sms on my mobile (no friend online)..but when my buddy sign in i cant receive any sms alert that buddy is online. even she tries to send me sms is not coming. it worked for sometime (4-5) but asking to reply which i cant do from here in saudi arabia.
    kindly advise how to stay in touch with buddy. I m using Idea-India.

    Comment by AMIN — May 26, 2008 #

  38. i want to remove ot unscribe yahoo mobile service so tht i cant get sms on my mobile n also i want remove my cell no from messenger

    Comment by abhi — June 3, 2008 #

  39. i choose yahoo messanger servcies on my mobile
    but i don’t want that service , i want to remove
    please reove this services immdiately

    Comment by Arjun — July 15, 2008 #

  40. I’m using the YM beta version 9.0.0.922 and subscribed to the mobile features. However, when I’m on YM during a PC to PC chat, I still appear to them as if I’m still on SMS mode. This results to no add-in features for messages sent to me (ex., audibles, emoticons, etc). However, I get to use all these features for messages sent to them.

    Thanks for any help

    Comment by Frimaga — July 27, 2008 #

  41. hii…i wanna knw tht hw can i remove this service..so tht i cant get sms on my mobile..again…also plz tll me hw can i remove my number too….

    Comment by zaid khan — July 27, 2008 #

  42. tell me how do i send sms to thailand cell tru yahoo messenger..does DTAC service provider support yahoo messenger.

    Comment by merls — July 31, 2008 #

  43. Hi merls,

    Yes, DTAC in Thailand is supported. You can find out more about sending SMS messages from Messenger on these pages:

    In Thai:
    http://th.messenger.yahoo.com/features/sms/

    In English:
    http://messenger.yahoo.com/features/sms/

    Here are specific help instructions on sending a SMS message:

    In English:
    http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/messenger/messenger9/mobile/mstasendsms.html

    Hope that helps,

    Sarah Bacon

    Comment by Administrator — July 31, 2008 #

Post a comment

Disclaimer and Reminder. The opinions expressed here are not necessarily the opinions of Yahoo! and we assume no responsibility for such content. Yahoo! may, in our sole discretion, remove comments that are off topic, inappropriate or otherwise violate our Terms of Service. Please do not post any private information unless you want it to be available publicly and never assume that you are completely anonymous and cannot be identified by your comments.