To download the latest version of Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone (v1.2.3) that includes this update, go to the iTunes App Store or tap the App Store icon on your iPhone and search for Yahoo! Messenger. If you already have Yahoo! Messenger installed, you may also have an update alert for the app.

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

Based on your helpful input, we’ve made lots of updates to this version which is now available in the iPhone App Store. Here’s what’s new / changed:

No more Idle status
Now when you exit the Yahoo! Messenger app on your iPhone but are still signed in, you’ll show as available to your friends rather than Idle. We agreed – showing up as idle didn’t make great sense since you want people to IM you.

Buzz got better
Ok, not every feature off the blocks is perfect and this one took some tweaking. In this version we’ve refined the Buzz notification sound and added a preference to turn Buzz on or off in the event you don’t want to use it (under Settings).

We also added vibrating notifications when you send or receive a Buzz. And if you’re in a conversation with someone and another friend buzzes you, you’ll see a notice on the screen.

New notification sound
Oh your bleeding ears! We heard you didn’t like the new IM notification sound so we changed it up a bit. Karl the engineer describes it as “shorter and prettier”. We hope you agree.

Fixed the address book integration
The iPhone address book integration faltered in our last version so we fixed it in 1.2.2. Now when you’re composing a new SMS for example, you’ll be able to access numbers in your iPhone address book, not just in Yahoo! Messenger.

We also tweaked a few things to address some bugs, crash and login issues.

To download the latest version of Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone (v1.2.2) that includes these updates, go to the iTunes App Store or tap the App Store icon on your iPhone and search for Yahoo! Messenger. If you already have Yahoo! Messenger installed, you may also have an update alert for the app.

As always, please use the Report Problem feature in the app if you run into any issues. You’ll find it under “Settings” in the Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone app.

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

Turns out I didn’t have the latest information about our Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone app, which is awaiting approval and release by Apple.

If you want all of the gory details… Two weeks ago we submitted an updated version of Yahoo! Messenger for the iPhone to the App Store for approval, but withdrew it to make some additional fixes and enhancements. Doing so reset the approval process timeline.

So the newly submitted Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone app has been with Apple for less than a week, and is well within the timeframe for their approval process.

Mea cupla. We’re a big company and despite all our fabulous technology, we can get our wires crossed and a certain blogger (yup, me) can jump the gun.

We’re thrilled that all of you are enjoying Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone, and we look forward to working with Apple to bring you the update soon.

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

New message alerts
(push notifications)
We’ve taken advantage of Apple’s 3.0 push notifications platform to enable new message notifications. Now, you will be notified when a new IM comes to your iPhone, even if the Yahoo! Messenger app is closed (or your phone is asleep).

The new message alerts for Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone work like the push notifications you get for Mail. When a new message comes in, a badge appears on top of the Yahoo! Messenger app icon on your home screen, indicating the number of new messages. This badge is based on cumulative messages received so whether three friends send you one message or one friend sends you three messages, you’d see a “3” on the app icon either way.

We’ll also pop up an alert on your home screen when a new message comes in. This is similar to when you receive an SMS text message on your phone. A notification overlays your home screen and you can decide whether to view the new IM or just close the alert. Even if your phone is asleep, we’ll wake it up and display the alert message.

You can also be notified with a sound when a new IM comes in. If your iPhone is muted, it will vibrate instead.

You can choose to use all or none of these new message alerts. To set your preferences, tap “Settings” on the home screen, then “Notifications”, and finally “Yahoo! Messenger”. From there you can turn on/off the sound, alert or badge notifications (they’re defaulted on when you install the app).

Now that new message alerts are included, you may want to make sure your Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone app icon is visible on your primary home screen. Get tips from Apple on how to customize your home screen icons. Using the same method, you can also drag and drop the Yahoo! Messenger app icon into your dock.

Stay online for up to 2 weeks
The Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone app will keep you signed in and visible to your Yahoo! Messenger friends for up to two weeks. When the app is closed on your phone, your status will show you as online but in an Idle state. Friends can IM you and when they do, you’ll receive a new message notification as described above.

There are a couple of ways your Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone availability can be interrupted. The first is if you sign into Yahoo! Messenger on a different device, such as your computer. Currently you can only be signed into Yahoo! Messenger from one location, so if you tend to move back and forth between your computer and your iPhone, just remember to sign in to your Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone app to ensure you’re online.

The other way to go offline on your iPhone is to manually sign out of the Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone app. In the app, tap on Settings, then scroll down and tap “Sign Out”. This will close the app and you will be offline, no longer able to receive messages on your iPhone.

Buzz your friends…with an iPhone twist
Buzz was one of the most requested features from our users on the iPhone app. So you’ll be happy to know you can now buzz away to your heart’s content. We also gave it a little iPhone flavor. When you want to buzz a friend, just shake your iPhone vigorously. Your friend gets buzzed on their end and you’ll also see the usual BUZZ!!! message in the conversation window.

We also added a few other items… Search in the app is now integrated with the Contacts app on your iPhone. Now when you search for someone’s mobile number so you can SMS them from the Messenger app, they’ll show up, even if they’re not on your Messenger list. We also added a preference to turn off the landscape keyboard option and we fixed a bug so that empty groups in your contact list will no longer be shown.

To download the latest version of Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone (v1.2.1) that includes these new features, go to the iTunes App Store, or tap the App Store icon on your iPhone and search for Yahoo! Messenger. If you already have Yahoo! Messenger installed, you may also have an update alert for the app.

If you run into any issues with the new version, please use the “Report a problem” feature in the app to let us know. Tap on Settings, then scroll down and tap on “Report a problem”.

We hope you enjoy this latest version of Yahoo! Messenger for the iPhone.

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

P.S. – If you installed 1.2 last night or earlier today, please uninstall and install it again. The one we submitted last night had some issues with push notifications, so be sure to install this final update. Thanks!

For Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone, this means you’ll get notified when a new IM message arrives, even if you aren’t actually running the app. Our new version with push notifications is not ready yet, but we wanted to let you know that we are working on it and hope to have it out soon.

We’ll let you know here on the blog when it’s ready.

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

We’ve identified the problems causing the chat room crash and the sign-in problem* (see potential workaround below), and will be releasing those fixes in a new build soon. So stay tuned to the blog; we’ll let you know as soon it’s available. Thanks for your patience.

On an Apple-related note, we’re smiling this week because we hit the 1 million download mark for our Yahoo! Messenger for the iPhone app. Thanks to all of our users for giving it a try and providing their feedback. We really appreciate it.

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

* Here’s a workaround if you are having trouble signing in since you updated to 10.5.7 (and are using a “behind the firewall” connection setting): Try disabling auto-login. To do that, click on the Yahoo! Messenger menu, select “Preferences”, then click on the “General” tab. Uncheck the box that says “Automatically start Yahoo! Messenger”. Quit Yahoo! Messenger completely and relaunch it again. If this fixes the issue, please hold off on turning auto-login back on until we release the new build.

If you are still experiencing problems, please use the Report a Problem feature to let us know. You can find it by tapping on the Settings icon in the app, then tap on Report Problem (screenshot).

Many thanks for your patience while we sorted this out.

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

If you haven’t already, please use the new “Report a Problem” feature in the app to let us know (screenshot). You can find it under the Settings icon in the app. When you submit, please include your debug logs (it is checked by default). These can very helpful when we’re troubleshooting issues from our side.

We’ll keep you updated here on the blog with any news. We know it’s frustrating so thanks for your patience.

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

UPDATE: This issue has been resolved as of 5/14/09. More info here

In response to some of your comments, we’ve released an updated version of Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone (v1.1), which is now available for download.

This latest version includes:

- Landscape keyboard mode – yay!

- A fix for the sign-in/connection issues that some of you were having. Please download this latest version and try signing in again.

- A new “Report a Problem” feature that lets you send us feedback from the app about any issues you’re encountering. It can be found under the Settings icon. (screenshot)

We hope you enjoy it!

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

When will the app be available outside the U.S.?
It already is! The U.S. (English) version is now available in all iTunes stores globally. At this time we don’t have plans to offer the app in other languages, but if you want the English version, you can download it through iTunes.

Can I IM my Windows Live Messenger friends from my iPhone?
Unfortunately you will not see your Windows Live Messenger friends in your contact list, so you’ll be unable to IM with them from the app. However, if you have their mobile phone number, you can always send them SMS messages.

Can I send SMS messages?
Yes, you can send free SMS (mobile text) messages from our iPhone app. We support the same countries and carriers for SMS as we do in our desktop program (see the list). To send an SMS message, start a conversation with a friend, then tap the IM icon to the left of the text field. This will toggle the message to SMS. Watch the SMS portion of the demo video

Keep in mind it’s free for you to send SMS messages (and to get back your friend’s replies) but your friends are still subject to any carrier fees on their end for receiving and replying to your messages.

The feature list includes contact search/filtering. Where is that in the app?
If you have a long contact list, your finger may get tired from flicking your way up and down your list to find a friend. To save time, tap the “new message” icon in the upper right corner of the contacts screen ( ). Then in the “To:” field, start typing your friend’s name and you will see filtered, matching results from your contact list. Select one and start chatting.

Yahoo! now has several iPhone apps that have Yahoo! Messenger in them. What gives?
Yeah, we know this is a little confusing. Yahoo! released a new Yahoo! Mobile for iPhone app last week that includes search, news, address book, Flickr, social network updates, Yahoo! Messenger and more. However, Messenger is just one component of that app. The Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone app offers more features that are specific to instant messaging. Depending on your needs, you can decide which iPhone app works best for you.

The Yahoo! Messenger for the iPhone application is free and can be downloaded through the iTunes App Store or through the App Store on your iPhone or iPod Touch (search for Yahoo! Messenger).

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager