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Versions 6 – 7.5 will end on September 30

September 18, 2009 on 11:00 am | In 10 version, 9.0 version, News | 36 Comments

Just another reminder that in twelve days, we will be retiring Yahoo! Messenger versions 6.0 through 7.5.

This means that if you are currently using a version of Yahoo! Messenger that is below 8.0, you will no longer be able to sign in and use it after September 30.

If you are using a version that is set to retire, you have several options for continuing to use Yahoo! Messenger:

Option 1: Download the latest version for Windows
You can use Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 which offers enhanced security as well as better protection from spam (info | video demo | download).

We also have a new Beta available, Yahoo! Messenger 10. This latest version offers enhanced video calling features, more ways to keep up with your friends, and a new menu that makes it easy to switch languages. (info | video demo | download)

Option 2: Use Yahoo! Messenger for the Web
If you can’t use the latest version mentioned above, you can always sign in to Yahoo! Messenger for the Web from any web browser. No extra download or installation is required. With our web version, you can send IM’s as well as SMS text messages to your friend’s mobile phones for free. Our web version also includes anywhere archiving, allowing you to access your message history from any computer or browser. Try it now at http://webmessenger.yahoo.com.

Option 3: Use the built-in IM feature in Yahoo! Mail
Both versions of Yahoo! Mail offer a built-in feature that lets you send and receive IMs. If you’re using the all-new Yahoo! Mail, just click the status menu next to your name in the upper header and change your status to “Available”. This will sign you into Yahoo! Messenger (you also have the option of staying invisible). IM conversations occur in separate tabs within your Mail page.

In Yahoo! Mail Classic, you’ll see a module on the left hand side of the page labeled “Chat & Mobile Text”. Click on the status menu in that module to change to “Available” (or Invisible). IM conversations will show up in a small box in the lower right corner of your Yahoo! Mail Classic page (but it won’t interfere with your Mail messages or using Mail).

As an alternative, there are also solutions available for your mobile phone. We recently launched Yahoo! Messenger for the iPhone and additionals versions are available for other mobile devices.

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

36 Comments »

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  1. Any planning of retierment for versions 8 ,8.1 and 8.3?

    Comment by Ionutz — September 18, 2009 #

  2. @Ionutz – We have no plans at this time to retire any 8.x versions. Thanks,

    Sarah Bacon

    Comment by Administrator — September 18, 2009 #

  3. when will we see another yahoo messenger beta 10 update?

    Comment by matt — September 18, 2009 #

  4. I can’t use the messenger in Yahoo Mail Classic. For some reason, I don’t have the messenger side panel and I can’t find anything related to it in the settings so option number 3 is not good for me.

    Are there any plans for the official Linux client revival? The old client has been retired and there is no replacement, not to mention that the old one didn’t even have file transfers, audio, video and such. If Skype can do it, you should also give it a try. Their client looks great so far.

    Comment by kneekoo — September 18, 2009 #

  5. [...] Out with the old: The Messenger team has news for anyone using Yahoo! Messenger versions 6.0 through 7.5. As of September 30th, we’ll be retiring those oldies. If you’re using anything below 8.0, you’ll find you won’t be able to sign in. That’s the price of progress, right? (We wouldn’t want you to be that guy still using a mobile phone with an antennae.) While Messenger 9.0 and the beta of Messenger 10 are rich in features like video sharing, full-screen video chat, spam protection, and more, we realize people like options. So after September 30th, you can also try Yahoo! Messenger for the Web or the IM built into Yahoo! Mail. More here. [...]

    Pingback by Product Pulse – Flickr Galleries, farewell old Messengers, photos en Español | Yodel Anecdotal — September 18, 2009 #

  6. I’m finding out it doesn’t do much good to report 35-50 similar names in one room trying to take over the room. I think yahoo either needs to bring back user rooms or try letting some of the regulars in the rooms to vote and elect a room admin that has some sort of control to stop this. It’s really really getting old.

    Comment by Me — September 20, 2009 #

  7. Ms Bacon, can we have some acknowledgement from you of the chatroom bot fiasco. It’s been 2 YEARS since the last mention of the spambot problem on this blog. People have been crying out for something to be done ever since. Thank you

    Comment by al mac — September 21, 2009 #

  8. Hey guys, I’m thinking here that nothing will be done about the bots, because Yahoo! would have done something about them years ago after they discovered the codes didn’t work well.

    Comment by Baldy — September 21, 2009 #

  9. I Only Wish Yahoo Would Take One half As Much Interest In The Chat Rooms…As It Does On The Window Dressings In Messenger…..And Let At least One of My Post …Stay here….:(

    Comment by roses_sssss — September 21, 2009 #

  10. Hi!

    I’ve had a problem in Y! Messenger 9 that remained in the 10 BETA. When I load an IMVironment in one of the windows, when I open another conversation window, the same IMVironment loads itself there. This is very annoying, especialy when for e.g. I’m talking with my girlfriend and I have the hearts IMV and suddenly the boss IMs me, and ooops, the hearts IMV loads. Why can’t yahoo notice this error?

    Comment by Steve — September 23, 2009 #

  11. ya my version of messenger 9 does that to with the imviroments

    Comment by hello yahoo — September 23, 2009 #

  12. @hello yahoo and Steve – This is actually the way IMVironments work beginning with Yahoo! Messenger 9.0. If you start a conversation with contact A and launch an IMV, when you launch a conversation with contact B, that same IMV will appear in the B conversation window. This is when YOU initiate the conversation. If you’re talking to A with an IMV loaded and user B IMs you, the IMV will not load.

    Keep in mind that IMV settings are per contact, so if you set the IMV to “none” for a friend when you’re in a conversation with them, an IMV will not load in future conversations (even if it’s loaded in another simultaneous conversation).

    Sarah Bacon

    Comment by Administrator — September 23, 2009 #

  13. hi
    i’ve had a problem in y! messenger 9.because i cant call pc to pc not like my old y!messenger.please help me

    Comment by gina — September 24, 2009 #

  14. [...] Details on the Yahoo! Messenger migration and ‘Yahoo! Messenger on the Web’ are now posted on the Messenger blog here. [...]

    Pingback by 25,000 Flickr Galleries (and more from Yahoo!) | IP Address Visitor — September 24, 2009 #

  15. It seems that you forgot another option-and thats not to use yahoo messenger at all! Given all the problems that exist in the chat rooms cause of the bots (that you don’t seem willing to do anything about), I am seriously thinking of switching over to AIM

    Comment by lisa_santorum — September 24, 2009 #

  16. What happened to the photoshare option….with new IMAC it is not an option…..why?

    Comment by Deacon — September 28, 2009 #

  17. [...] Details on the Yahoo! Messenger migration and ‘Yahoo! Messenger on the Web’ are now posted on the Messenger blog here. [...]

    Pingback by 25,000 Flickr Galleries (and more from Yahoo!) « Tech7.Net — September 28, 2009 #

  18. Since I use gaim/pidgin on Solaris, and the yahoo/mail version does not seem to working within the firefox version that I run on Solaris, I guess I won’t be using Yahoo IM either. It seems you didn’t wait until the 30th to turn the old versions off. What was working several hours ago just fine, no longer works, because the server keeps kicking me off. Oh well. I guess I’ll be encouraging those I communicate with to get AIM accounts.

    Kent Peacock

    Comment by Kent Peacock — September 28, 2009 #

  19. i’m phone ym client user(using slick)
    how we can mobile now?????????????

    Comment by guinzo — September 29, 2009 #

  20. I try connect with slick, yamee, and ym tinya. But none of them work, what should I do if I want to connect with mobile phone

    Comment by rizky rivolsa — September 29, 2009 #

  21. Hi all. as some one who has been using yahoo 7.5 I am sorry to see it go. The reason I say this is because I am blind and the new versions of yahoo messenger are not as accessible with yahoo messenger 7.5 i was able to navigate it quite fine using my screen reader. With yahoo messenger 8 and 9 even with the scripts that were made for jaws to make yahoo more accessible i have found it a excersize in frustration to use these other vershions. I Wish that yahoo would fokes more on accessibillidey and making there messenger as accessible as 7.5 with out shutting out the blind and other people who could cair lesss about some of the new fetures of the new messenger if it is not accessible what’s the point?

    Comment by Mich Verrier — September 29, 2009 #

  22. i use linux and pidgen – Is there a new Yahoo version that will sork for me?

    Comment by steve — September 29, 2009 #

  23. Your new protocol version has completely broken my access from Linux to Yahoo Messenger. I use the “kopete” chat client, despite upgrading to the very latest 4.3.1 version of this it still does not work, I keep getting kicked off. The Web version is simply not an option for me. I’m switching to Google Talk until you either fix this problem, or support the Jabber/XMPP Open messaging standard like they do.

    Comment by Keith Mitchell — September 30, 2009 #

  24. Why on earth would you retire them? Now I can’t connect to yahoo since all three of the above options are not an option… What horrible technical issue mandates blocking people?

    Comment by Bret — September 30, 2009 #

  25. Sorry, I worded that poorly without noticing. All jokes aside what’s the deal with this?

    Comment by Bret — September 30, 2009 #

  26. Hey Bret,

    There are other options. Don’t know anything about them, but you could consider:
    – MSN’s messenger
    – meebo.com
    – Trillian 3.1 => mentioned on the earlier retirement post in this same blog:
    http://www.ymessengerblog.com/blog/2009/09/11/support-for-versions-6-0-7-5-ends-september-30th

    Comment by another disappointed user — October 2, 2009 #

  27. I cant get the new messenger to work ever since this ‘new’ stuff came up. I tried to unload the old messenger, getting rid of the entire program from my laptop, and tried to reload the #9. It says a version is already loaded in. I deloaded it again..and cant get passed the initial installation. I wish you had just LEFT it alone. I cannot connect with any of my buddies. Your techie tried to send me a version of messenger..didnt work. Very disappointed. If its not broken..leave it alone.

    Comment by details — October 3, 2009 #

  28. and just read the comment with the blind user. Wow..yeah..you guys should have left it alone.

    Comment by details — October 3, 2009 #

  29. I am not able to download the latest version of Yahoo messenger (9.0). What do i do?

    Comment by Emem Akwa — October 6, 2009 #

  30. @Emem Akwa – Please contact customer care for assistance: http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/messenger/messenger9/help9.html

    Sarah Bacon

    Comment by Administrator — October 6, 2009 #

  31. cannot get alabama chat on the new yahoo messenger 9.0

    Comment by bob — October 8, 2009 #

  32. version 9 doesn’t really worked at all! i just recently dowloaded it and tried talking with my family in the net but they can’t hear a single word that I am saying!i’m getting frustrated and i regret downloading the new one!how can i return to version 8 again?

    Comment by grace — October 10, 2009 #

  33. Is there any chance to see an android version in the near future?

    Comment by Adrian — October 19, 2009 #

  34. Can we get back the per-contact display image? I have stuck to v8 for this reason – it is easy to understand an office pic and a bikini pic have different audiences on one’s list.

    Comment by Glass — November 23, 2009 #

  35. How do we defeat the yahoo messenger from activating when we go to the web page to read mail? It kicks off my regular messenger and I just want it to stop.

    Lee

    Comment by Lee — October 12, 2010 #

  36. There is a message that I like YAHOO.

    Comment by Buy MBT — June 20, 2011 #

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