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Meow! Meet the Emoticats™

May 9, 2008 on 1:26 pm | In Features, Fun Stuff |

We launched a new IMVironment this week called “Emoticats”. Imagine your favorite emoticons but with a distinctly feline feel to them.

You can play with the Emoticats by clicking the IMVironment button in your IM window during a conversation. Look for the ‘Emoticats’ listing in the menu. Or click here to launch it now if you’re on Yahoo! Messenger 8.1 or 9.0.

Once the IMV is running, you can use your mouse to browse through the Emoticats gallery that displays portraits of cats in various behaviors – Yawn, Cat Nap, Scratch that, Talk to the Paw, I need a vacation and more. Double click on the cat’s portrait and then click the “Insert” button to send the animated emoticat to your friend. There’s also a small Emoticats menu in the lower left corner of the IMV window.

Feeling catty yourself? Click the “Adopt” button instead to make that Emoticat your display image. My personal favorite is the Bling Emoticat – I suspect the model for this one probably auditioned for those old Fancy Feast commercials.

And if you want to share Emoticats with other cat lovers on your friend’s list, click the “Accept” link in the IMV window to set your status message to “Got My Paws On The Emoticat IMV”. Your status will be clickable to friends that have you on their list so they can try it for themselves.

The Emoticats IMVironment is available in Yahoo! Messenger 8.1 and 9.0 Beta. Note that you can only send the Emoticats animated icons to friends when the IMV is running in your IM window.

Meooooow!

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

24 Comments »

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  1. GREAT!!!! I like the “bad hair day” cat ^_^

    Oh and hey Sarah is there going to be IMviroments in Yahoo Messenger for Vista?

    Comment by Homer — May 9, 2008 #

  2. Ok… While I do love cats, all I can say on this is that these emotes are just another useless, pointless addition to Yahoo! IM and all services attached to it. At first the captcha thing seemed to work, but the makers of the BOTs that plauge the chat rooms quickly found ways past it. And recently it’s come to my attention recently that, for reasons unknown, the flexability and security that came with creating profiles for screen names on Yahoo! has also been reduced. I’m sure at least some people here know what I’m refering to, and I know Yahoo! does as well, I just refuse to post all the problems I’ve found when Yahoo! clearly knows about them and will likely delete this post anyways.

    All I can say is that with all the problems that’s sprung up, beginning with the removal of the user rooms to Yahoo!’s constantly placing adding pointless crap before the issues, I’ve come to question just how serious Yahoo! is about providing a viable program and chat-rooms. And considering that at one point I heard that Yahoo! only has a handful of staff working on Yahoo! IM and it’s chat rooms, I’m a bit more than stunned that they’re wasting time on stuff like this when they could be fixing the problems plauging the chat rooms and other related services.

    Look, I appreciate the free service they’re providing, don’t get me wrong. But after being with Yahoo! IM since the days of the user rooms and enduring one failure after another, I guess you can lot me in with the loyal, but still highly fustrated group of users that is growing rapidly.

    Comment by Janus — May 10, 2008 #

  3. this is the full story for yahoo sorry remove the first one

    Well, just like everybody you have troubles of your own
    But let me tell you mister of the sorrow I have known!
    I had an old grey cat, that I couldn’t bear to keep
    He spent the nights a-howl’n and he wouldn’t let me sleep.

    So I put him in a box and I tied it up quite well.
    I had some fellows help me and I paid them not to tell.
    We put it in a boxcar, the west-bound 7:10
    The train pulled away and was never seen again.

    But the Cat came back, the very next day
    Yes the Cat came back and he wouldn’t stay away!
    Meow, kitty! Meow, so pretty!
    Meow, such a pity, but the Cat came back!

    So I took him to the harbor and I put in on a ship.
    I bid him bon voyage! for that oceanic trip!
    The captain was obligin’ and glad to help us out
    We tied him to the anchor so that there could be no doubt!

    Well, we heard that sad report of that might storm at sea
    And though it may sound heartless, I was happy as could be!
    The paper said the ship went down beneath a heavy gale
    And not a single soul was left to tell the awful tale!

    But the Cat came back, the very next day
    Yes the Cat came back and he wouldn’t stay away!
    Meow, kitty! Meow, so pretty!
    Meow, such a pity, but the Cat came back!

    So I gave him to a scientist, destined for the moon.
    The Cat was used for ballast in an outer space balloon!
    I guess you know what happened, that balloon’s up there still,
    And early that next morning, guess what came across the hill??

    (Meow! That’s right.)

    Now, everyone in town was sworn to shoot that Cat on sight.
    With that crazy cat around you couldn’t sleep at night!
    We even formed a posse just to hunt that critter down!
    You could hear the guns a-blazin’ as they ran him out of town!

    But the Cat came back, the very next day
    Yes the Cat came back and he wouldn’t stay away!
    Meow, kitty! Meow, so pretty!
    Meow, such a pity, but the Cat came back!

    Comment by samuel — May 12, 2008 #

  4. How come some of them will not work?

    Comment by nivea — May 13, 2008 #

  5. […] ha presentado en su blog un nuevo entorno para Yahoo! Messenger denominado “Emoticats“. Se trata de un […]

    Pingback by messenger es gratis — May 13, 2008 #

  6. […] hemos enterado por medio del blog de Yahoo! que el equipo de Yahoo! Messenger ha lanzado un pack de emoticonos llamados Emoticats para el […]

    Pingback by Emoticats, Emoticonos de gatos para Yahoo! Messenger — May 14, 2008 #

  7. I would like more emotions for yahoo messenger

    Comment by mary francs kompter — May 15, 2008 #

  8. It seems like with every good advance of messenger, there is always something like this thats pointless.

    Comment by DC — May 16, 2008 #

  9. Emoticats hella funny

    Comment by JJ — May 18, 2008 #

  10. very cool for cat lovers, but how about something for dog lovers too? there’s alot more of them!

    Comment by puppybone69 — May 19, 2008 #

  11. These pics r cute!!!

    Comment by chicken boy — May 20, 2008 #

  12. love the cat emotiocons now we just need some for dog lovers.

    Comment by deb — May 21, 2008 #

  13. This is one of the most stupidest things Yahoo Messenger has ever come out with.
    I could think of a whole bunch of other cool stuff to come out with than this.
    Don’t get me wrong I like the new 9.0 version. But it was a little difficult to figure out after I loaded it. Like I have had it for like 2-3 weeks now and today I just finally found out how to change the skin on the messenger.
    Maybe its just me?
    The photos are cute, but its not something I am interested in I guess.

    Comment by krazy2eve — May 22, 2008 #

  14. I love the new Emoticats! Please add more kitty stuff in the future. Yahoo messenger is more fun to use now. LOL Thanks Yahoo

    Comment by ksallcowgirl — May 26, 2008 #

  15. Have tried several times over several days, but have not been able to “hook up” to the Emoticats. WHY?

    Comment by JIMMY — May 29, 2008 #

  16. Some of them don’ work, although my friends use the newest version. WHY? Can you fix it? Thanks

    Comment by Hanh — June 6, 2008 #

  17. SMILE EVERY TIME

    Comment by AHMED HABCHI — June 6, 2008 #

  18. MES PHOTOS

    Comment by AHMED HABCHI — June 6, 2008 #

  19. Why just not make it a regular emoticons instead, IMVs are cumbersome and performance hogs for old PCs.

    Neways, those EMOTICATS are nice, they remind me of LOLCATS….

    Comment by Ralph — June 17, 2008 #

  20. Finally something dedicated to cat lovers! <3
    It’s fair ’cause you can see dogs everywhere… lol
    Thanks, yahoo! =^..^=

    Comment by Darkyria — June 30, 2008 #

  21. Please could you tell me how to get rid emoticats in my yahoo site

    Comment by Mrs. F. dain — July 18, 2008 #

  22. Hi Mrs. F. Dain,

    When you’re in an IM conversation, click the “IMVironment” button at the top of the window and select “No IMVironment”.

    Hope that helps,

    Sarah Bacon

    Comment by Administrator — July 18, 2008 #

  23. it doesn’t work! I put “emoticats” and I see just : ” Loading the “Emoticats” IMVironment. ” I wait 2 minutes and …….. nothing appears … why? I have Yahoo! Messenger 9 Beta …

    Comment by alina — July 25, 2008 #

  24. Wow - I haven’t tried emoticats or ym 9 yet - but I find it ironic that the only message yahoo staff responded to was the one asking how to turn the feature off. Why not respond to the people who raise legitimate issues about the problems with yahoo chat and yahoo messenger? At the very least, provide the corporate reasoning behind the removal/addition of features so people understand WHY all their favorite parts of yahoo are gone and all these new things have been added. And by the way, I still use messenger to keep in touch with the friends I’ve made over the years, but deleting the user rooms was a huge mistake, and the total failure of the captcha feature to even decrease the amount of bots was the final blow. I no longer use yahoo chat because I got tired of going into a full room after 8 or more attempts to get in, and finding 3 live humans and a room full of bots.

    Comment by shiv — July 26, 2008 #

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