January 10, 2008 on 10:59 am | In Features, Voice | 8 Comments
Soundtrack is one of my favorite “hidden” features in Yahoo! Messenger. While you’re on a voice call, you can choose a music file from your hard drive to play during your call. I use it all the time to play music for myself and a friend while we talk.
To use the Soundtrack feature in Yahoo! Messenger 8.1 or 9.0, first place a call to a friend. You can either call another Yahoo! Messenger friend for free on a PC-to-PC call, or call a friend’s mobile or other number using PC-to-phone. Once your friend answers and you start talking, click the sound icon, then click the music note icon. This will open a window that lets you select a MP3 file from your hard drive.
Once you’ve loaded the MP3 file into your call, it will play in the background for both you and your friend to hear. If it’s too loud, click the music note icon to adjust the volume. This is handy if you just want your music to play in the background softly during the call (or have some karaoke fun). The menu also allows you to forward or reverse to a specific point in the song.
I’ve used the Soundtrack feature for a few different things – introducing a friend to a new song, singing along to a track to entertain a friend, or even to listen to a MP3 podcast together. Try adding a soundtrack to your next call in Yahoo! Messenger.
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
January 8, 2008 on 10:52 am | In News | Add a Comment
We’re aware that users are having difficulty signing in to Yahoo! Messenger. We are experiencing some system problems and are working on a fix. In the meantime, please use Yahoo! Messenger for the Web. Thanks for your patience,
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
UPDATE: Issues resolved as of 11:30am Pacific Time
January 4, 2008 on 1:37 pm | In Voice | 11 Comments
The New York Times recently had an interesting article about software for recording internet phone calls. Recording calls can be handy if you’re using your computer to make business calls, or there’s just a memorable conversation you want to archive (like my nephew’s first phone call with me when he was 2).
The article mentioned a couple of programs that work with Yahoo! Messenger – Solicall and HotRecorder. Solicall is a call enhancement program with recording options, while HotRecorder offers recording and archiving capabilities. I took HotRecorder for a test drive to see how it worked.
Download and installation for HotRecorder was quick and easy. I did notice it was set with Skype as the default program for recording calls from, and I couldn’t figure out right away how to change that to Yahoo! Messenger. But a quick search of their online help set me straight – right click on the HotRecorder icon in the system tray, select “Activate HotRecorder for…” and then choose Yahoo! Messenger. If you don’t see Yahoo! Messenger in the list initially, make sure it’s running on your computer.
I then placed a call in Yahoo! Messenger. I was hoping that HotRecorder would detect that a call was taking place and start recording on its own, but it didn’t. However the HotRecorder window is small and can sit alongside your Messenger call window, so it’s easy to just click the record button in the window to start. A timer appeared in the HotRecorder window to let me know the duration (note that with the free version, your maximum recording time is 2 minutes). Once my call ended, I clicked the stop button. The HotRecorder window changed, showing me the call duration and recording file size (a :27 conversation was 7 KB), and also provided data fields I could fill in for the filename, who the call was with and keywords. Then I clicked Save, a brief encoding process took place and I was returned to the original home screen.
HotRecorder also has a “Player” tab that allows you to access your saved conversations from that session (you can access recording from past sessions by opening them off your hard drive). You can search for conversations (by person, date or keyword), replay them, and even send a recording to a friend. When you send to a friend, it attaches the recording in an .ELP file format to an email. Your friend will then need to download and install HotRecorder on their own computer to listen to the .ELP file.
HotRecorder also offers some “Emotisounds” you can play on your call like “Booing”, “Baby’s Cry” and “Cheer” (15 in total). The good news is they’re different from the Soundboard sound effects offered in Yahoo! Messenger 8.1 and 9.0 so between the two, you can add a lot of fun to your calls.
HotRecorder is free if you only need to record calls that are 2 minutes or less; the premium version is $14.95. I found it very handy for recording both PC-to-PC and PC-to-phone calls from Yahoo! Messenger.
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
