Five reasons to try 9.0 Beta
May 13, 2008 on 1:20 pm | In 9.0 version |
Say the word “Beta” to a computer user and you might not get the last syllable out because they’ll already be running away at breakneck speed. Understandably, a lot of users avoid upgrading to stick with what they have, especially if it’s working fine.
I’ve been using Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 Beta since it launched in October of last year and it’s been great. Yes, it has its “moments” like any Beta software, but overall it’s very stable. So I thought I would share my favorite things about this new version which might encourage you to give it a try too. Some of these have been the subject of dedicated blog articles, so click the links to get more in-depth info. Or click here to watch a video demo.
#1 New emoticons & skins
All the communication functions of Messenger are great, but the real fun is in the extras like emoticons and skins. This version has six new emoticons inspired by users – Wasn’t Me!, Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down, Rock On 
, Hurry Up and Don’t Want To See. 9.0 Beta also has a brand new set of skins. Also, did you know you can insert some of the basic emoticons in your status message?
#2 Compact v. detailed view for contacts
We’ve got two views for your contact list in 9.0 Beta. Use the detailed view to see larger display images for your friends and get access to the hover menu to quickly IM, SMS or call a contact. Or choose the compact view to keep each contact on one line.
#3 Inline video player
This is one of the coolest new features in 9.0 Beta. When you send a video link to a friend from a popular site like YouTube (or they send one to you), the video player appears right in the IM window. Just click to watch the clip – no need to jump off to the video website. This makes it much easier to watch and talk about the video at the same time.
#4 It’s all about “hover”
9.0 Beta adds some handy features when you hover on a contact. In detailed list mode, hovering on a contact brings up a menu to IM, call or SMS. When you’re in compact mode, hovering on a contact brings up the full-featured contact card. Depending on the info you have for that contact, you can IM, call a specific number, SMS, send email and even edit their contact info – all with a single click.
#5 Same great features
All of my favorite features are still in 9.0 Beta – the Yahoo! Music LAUNCHcast plug-in, file transfer, photo sharing, ability to IM with my Windows Live™ Messenger friends, IM forwarding to my mobile phone when I’m offline, and free PC-to-PC calls. Check out our features page to see all the great stuff available in 9.0.
Why not give 9.0 Beta a try? Remember, you can always uninstall and go back to 8.1 if you’re not satisfied. And after you’ve used 9.0 for awhile, be sure to leave us feedback about your experience.
>> Download Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 Beta <<
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
more reasons no to.
1. NO emphasis on privacy OR security
2. Bots attack
3. Packs more advertisements than previous versions
4. Does not work for chat
5. Skins galore.. for the win!
Comment by hmmmm — May 13, 2008 #
More bloat more bots and wonderful CAPTCHA which is doing nothing what-so-ever to stop the bots but provides a genuine pain in the neck for the few remaining human users.
Sitting in Recreation & Sports right now. 20 “Users.” Me 18 bots and “Yahoo.”
Great job with the new “security” features.
pffffffffffffft….
Comment by fuhgedaboudit — May 13, 2008 #
All previously released versions were of beta quality to begin with. So why bother with the label???
Please fix the existing bugs in the bloatware and don’t waste your time and energy adding cute smileys.
By the way, have you been to any chat rooms lately?
Wow. another episode of Revenge of the BOTS coming to the chatroom near you…yahooooo!!!!
Comment by roflmao — May 13, 2008 #
YM9 beta crashes (hangs/crashes) in 40% of the times when I try to send files, or when the internet gets disconnected.
I already reported this to the Feedback page so I hope it will be fixed in the final version.
Comment by TLP — May 13, 2008 #
Even though all these comments will be removed. I have to have a say on this. These comments make me laugh in agreement.
9.0 is new and yet not as good as 8.1 I prefer 8.1 over 9.0 any day.
As for the chat room war against Mrs. Bacon. I support it. I think Yahoo is ignoring the fact that their on messenger chat system is a failed project.
I recently pulled my stock from Yahoo because of their failure to hear the users. They hear themselves over us.
I do like the fact that Yahoo “tried” to fix the bot issue but unfortunately the try wasn’t a powerful enough one.
The Yahoo Messenger team needs more programmers and even some Microsoft techies. Some times I wish that Microsoft would have just bought out or met Yahoo’s demand. They have the chat room fixed QUICK!
Sarah Bacon, make note how many anti Yahoo Chat comments versus topic comments you see here before they are removed. There’s a voice looming around. If nothing is done, this issue can take to online blogs. Once they hit there and if the voice is strong enough, it will lead to media announcements. Yahoo stocks will fall once people actually realize that the security of personal computers are at risk… Take note…
One voice, one choice. I’ve said mine, I’ve done mine.
What are you going to say and do?
Comment by Homer — May 13, 2008 #
Well, I like 9.0 Beta.
My only gripe is the skins/aesthetics. The skins in previous version were fine because the user could default back to the native Windows UI. I miss the ability to do that in 9.0. Also the contact search [quite useful but] bar is repulsive to look at.
Comment by Anonymous — May 14, 2008 #
When you guys are going to give an option to save chat messeges to server and allow me to tag..pls .. don’t u guys understand this is a good feature.. or you want ur messenger usability below gtalk.. u r doing funny things much miore than useful thins.. and if u continue to do this then near future gtalk is going to kill YM!
Comment by debajyoti — May 14, 2008 #
im quite liking Yahoo Messenger 9.0 and i have noticed things about the BETA which others may of not noticed. When choosing a skin you can only view up to 10 skins even though you may have created 50 others in the skin directory. I coded a beta skin the other week and i noticed that the Voice Controls in the chatroom are unable to be skinned at present. I also noticed that when creating the background image for the smiley background it interacts with the menubar strip. When the bugs are cleared up with this skinning system and its out of BETA i have a feeling i am going to be using this Messenger all the time as i find its way better than Yahoo Messenger 8.1
I have not seen any new BETA builds for a while and hope i get to test a newer build soon.
Thanks for another great product
Comment by Web Coder — May 14, 2008 #
Lets face it!
The 9 version isn’t so complex and still is not moving from beta to final version.
Other companies make a new version of an OS system in this time frame… like the ubuntu project.
Why so much time to develop what are the fantastic features that need all this time to develop?
I used the beta version and I swiched back to 8.1
Reasons:
- Very bad compatibility with v8.1 could not transfer files or even webcam not working..
- Crashes
- Memory usage
- Even if my status was off line to a group of people my “avatar, picture” was showing off to all users (very bad for business)
and other reasons that I can’t remember…
Comment by Mircea — May 14, 2008 #
Important software developer lessons to keep in mind:
Whatever new stuff you want to put in, make it optional. People hate it when they get forced to use things they don’t like or don’t need. Even when they don’t use something, they even hate to see it all the time while they’re unable to turn it off. To the very least make it as customizable as possible. Never assume you as the developer somehow “knows better” what people are supposed to like or be convinced they’d need.
Whatever old stuff you want to throw out, don’t. People hate it when they get something taken away from them, no matter how small or irrelevant or barely used it seems to be.
Be careful to introduce changes to functions, look or feel. And do not add bloat.
Comment by ario — May 14, 2008 #
How about some constructive criticism as oppose to ranting? Simply put, the 9.0 version gets 3.5 out of 5 stars from me. Video sharing in the same window is one of the coolest features. Then, we have 7 different intuitive skins, options to have detailed view with bigger pictures of your friends etc. Things that should be changed in the final version: 1. Automatically switched option for messenger to start when the computer starts after any update. Yahoo Messenger is always ON when my computer is ON, but I want to start it myself. I don’t understand why Yahoo is constantly ignoring this request? 2. Webcam! OK, I don’t like Skype, I don’t use it very often, but how much better is their webcam service? ALOT! I have Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 which is one of the most advanced cameras in the market and works like a charm in Skype. The very same webcam in Yahoo: It always freezes after 1 minute, not matter what, its slow and far, far from ’superwebcam’. I really think it’s time for the webcam service to be reevaluated. It’s been around for years with no progress at all. Despite some lateness, especially with Messenger for Vista, I believe Yahoo is working hard, sometimes the final product shows that, sometimes not. In any case, keep it up Yahoo!
Comment by Milan J. — May 14, 2008 #
I just wanted to let you know that I do like the new messenger but one feature I wish you still had is we use to be able to play pool or chess in our messenger window with our friends. I know we can play online at yahoo games but it was nice to have it and not effect your ratings.
I also was wondering when you do the 360 transition are we going to get a button for the new
site like we use to have for the 360?
Comment by Marcy — May 15, 2008 #
Or, for that matter, separate chat and IM entirely. Two different, unrelated clients. Whenever I see “Yahoo Messenger” being discussed, three quarters of the criticism seems to revolve around chatrooms and chat-related issues like bots. Personally I’ve never had any interest in the “chat” portion at all, Yahoo Messenger for me is just that - a Messenger, as in Instant Messaging conversation between two people or within a dedicated limited conference. I never “chat” in Yahoo “chatrooms”, and I don’t know anyone who does.
Comment by rioa — May 15, 2008 #
I think we all would enjoy chatting in the chat rooms more if you could keep the people who are doing all the cloning out of the rooms, that is if you have a way of finding out who is doing it. I don’t think it is fair for the lonely people who enjoy their computers to have to stay out of the room due to it being full of clones names and also these clones use the names of chatters and they use ugly names and ones that they should not be allowed to use. I enjoy the chat room I go in but I certainly do not enjoy trying as we have to to get into one due to all the clones name in the chatter box. It woud be great if you could see fit to try and find out who is using all of these ID and do something about it.
Thanks
Comment by Josephine — May 15, 2008 #
It’s exactly the skins somehow I don’t like, and I prefer the old emoticons. If I can have version 8 emoticon, I might want to change to version 9. Can you also make the v.9 skin like the one on vista?? That looks far better than v.9 skins. Otherwise, classical v.8 is still working perfectly for me.
Comment by i.c. — May 16, 2008 #
I have chatted in yahoo since early 97 but as the cloners have made it so ugly to witness their attacks on some of the people in chat I have slowly pulled away from chat. Where I used to be in and out of chat everyday I barely go in more than once or twice a week. I have found other places to hang out that while they do not have open chat all day it has a more pleasant environment and when each groups administrator has chat rooms open we get together and visit. Cloners should be fairly easy to track, no one should have to endure some of the things I have witnessed..
Comment by lukeeladee — May 16, 2008 #
I still can’t even log onto 9.0 Beta! A friend of mine thinks that my system can’t handle it.
Comment by Mickey — May 16, 2008 #
You guys have to be the worst devlopers I mean seriously whats the point in this crap?
You have to have Your PM’s on to see chat room text?
Seriously Have you forgot about the PM Bombers or annoying PM’s from idiots in the chat room?
Why dont you fix this program and let us not have to have the whole room on our buddy list just to see the room text.
Anyone not on your buddylist if this is checked you cant see chat room text.
Why would you code Yahoo Messenger like this totally stupid and this would make me wanna use a 3rd party client and not Yahoo Messenger.
Which is what im go download now and uninstall Yahoo from 8.1 Up to 9.0 Beta you have to allow PM’s to see chat room text other wise you cant take part in the chats.
Comment by ZaraByte — May 17, 2008 #
Isn’t it time to introduce something like IMVU into Yahoo! Messenger?
Comment by Jaunty Mellifluous — May 18, 2008 #
Sixth reason to use Yahoo! Messenger 9.0? YTK Pro has support for it (and has HAD)!
Comment by Rob — May 18, 2008 #
There are more than five reasons why I switched from Windows Live Messenger to Y!M 9. But for almost a month, I cannot signin. Don’t know why but it’s seem there is some thing about Internet Connection. I tried change connection type without any success. I did check firewall, Ani-virus but found nothing wrong.
Btw, when compare to Y!M for Vista, Y!M9 is poor and lack of detial for error or sign-in problem–I do means it telling nothing except cannot sign-in.
Comment by n-blue — May 18, 2008 #
oh yeah!!! i’ve try new ym version 9.0…it’s great…
Comment by muhdaffiq — May 19, 2008 #
Yahoo! Messenger & Yahoo! 360º [Y!Profile or Yahoo 360 Plus] Working Together, Please…!
^:)^
Comment by VTV — May 20, 2008 #
what happened to the games?!?!
Comment by fsim — May 20, 2008 #
I couldn’t even use this if I wanted to. Yahoo stopped releasing messenger for *nix. Oh well.
Comment by christine — May 21, 2008 #
Here is a way to make this one even better. I just watched the videos for vista and xp messenger. I notice that the vista has a feature that i would like to have with the xp version I have.
I would like to see the xp have the same feature as vista. The one where all your chats are in one window. With having the option to have them separate when you want, or all in one.
Please keep me posted if this changes.
Comment by krazy2eve — May 22, 2008 #
Oh, also the same feature with the smiley’s….that is cool how they pop out of the window
Comment by krazy2eve — May 22, 2008 #
when someone floods the chat chat room with message i always receive a po-up box saying i can’t ignore myself why is that? in older version of ym it will ignore automatically the one that is flooding now i get this pop-up until my messenger crashes DAMN! can u please fix this…
Comment by YN user — May 22, 2008 #
I used this beta version for a month and then suddenly one day it stopped working..i couldn’t see my list and my convos all turned white…and from that day onwards i had to switch to ym 8.. please fix this problem!!
Comment by Deep — May 22, 2008 #
why there is no Conference ??? hope that you’ll make it compability with other version with this one, thanks…
Comment by chazz — May 23, 2008 #
it sucks, pops up blank windows, then pops up program must end nonresponsive program, then kicks me off everytime. i hate it!
Comment by forwheelntatas69 — May 23, 2008 #
We need to try the new beta because of ytk pro? Since yahoo has apparently finally decided to patch the booting exploits for messenger on their servers on their end, at a lowest level which is what they should have done in the first place, that means nobody should need ytk pro, ytunnel, yhaven, and all of that other jazz at all anymore. Kudos to yahoo for finally getting that stuff fixed, and for the new messenger versions (especially for the macs!)
Comment by jqchatter — May 25, 2008 #
Tried YM beta…has too many glitches..cant play games with another person who has another version of YM…
then..one of the most prominent problems is tht the beta gets hanged so often…and the other issue is that it seems that YM 9.0 is not compatible with Vista…it gives me an error everytime i sign out…weird..never happened before with YM..if tht can be fixed….tht would be great!
Comment by am111 — May 27, 2008 #
help me with my yahoo messanger, for sometime now i have been using yahoo messanger but recently whenever i sign in it closes immediately, why do anyone have any solution to it.
initially i installed yahoo messanger 8.0 then i uninstalled everything to solve the problem and tried beta version 9.0 but it is still not working
help me with the problem
Comment by kuldip — May 28, 2008 #
Well…YM 9.0 is the best messenger I ever used.Keep it up Yahoo!Your the best!
Comment by Doomclip — June 4, 2008 #
You won’t be able to see the yahoo ID in the friends list.. just their name. In yahoo 8.0 you could change from Name to yahoo ID, now this option seems to be gone.
Comment by Dragos — August 3, 2008 #
I have had to install 9.0 beta, then un-install it on several occassions due to it constantly shutting down on me, and when i try to log in to the chat rooms it takes me at least 5 attempts which is very irritating, But i Love the new emotions and the video in line player, but seriously yahoo should try and do something about being able to conect to chatrooms quicker and, that i shouldn’t have to use a third party chat clients to protect me from getting flooded and booted
Comment by Tania — August 30, 2008 #
2 problems:
1) IT FREEZES AND CRASHES WHEN I TRY TO CHANGE MY DISPLAY
2) iT fREEZES AND CRASHES WHEB SOMEONE OFFERS ME A PHOTO AND I CLICK ACCEPT.
iT DID TIS IN 8 AS WELL. aNY SOUTIONS?
Comment by Dan Cassin — November 17, 2008 #