Android phone owners, the wait is over! Today marks the debut of Yahoo! Messenger App for Android, alongside the new Yahoo! Mail for Android.
With the availability of our world-class Yahoo! Messenger services for Android, we’re making it easier than ever for users to access fast, reliable, and feature-rich Yahoo! experiences on one of the fastest growing platforms in the market.
Yahoo! Messenger Android App is available for download via the Android Market globally, and support OS 2.0 or higher, including the popular Motorola Droid, HTC Incredible, Google Nexus One.
With the new Yahoo! Messenger App for Android, you can:
Easily message friends, check friends’ status updates and availability and update their personal status and availability
Multitask and stay connected with the App working in the background; with push notifications, consumers can easily catch new messages and friend requests
Full use of emoticons and rich text formatting
Send photos to friends directly from the phone’s camera or the photo gallery
Chat with MSN/Windows Live Messenger friends
Send instant messages to friends via SMS text message*
We are extremely excited about this release and can’t wait for you to get started. Download the Yahoo! Messenger App from the Android Market on http://mobile.yahoo.com/messenger/android
Andreas Nordin
Product Manager, Yahoo! Messenger
*This feature is currently only available when sending to numbers in Canada, Indonesia, India, Kuwait, Malaysia, Philippines, Pakistan, Thailand, United States and Vietnam.
Today, we are thrilled to announce the availability of the Yahoo! Messenger One app in beta at CommunicAsia 2010. Yahoo! Messenger One was conceived on the premise of wanting to create an integrated and easily accessible communication experience for new-to-net mobile users, offering them a central point for their communication and content needs while on the go.
The beta launch of Yahoo! Messenger One represents a refreshing approach to all your communications needs. How so? Simply put, this all-in-one universal address book and communications hub enables you to find, connect and communicate with friends the way you want, whether it’s email, instant messaging or SMS – it’s your choice! What’s more, it’s packed with a slew of user benefits including:
Mobile registration: You can sign up for a new Yahoo! ID right from within Yahoo! Messenger One app. No PC/laptop needed. How convenient is that!
Unified inbox: Now you have all your email, IM and SMS conversations in one easy-to-use-and-access inbox, you can always keep track of all your conversations, hassle free.
Native address book syncing: Simply upload your contacts to Yahoo! so you can access them from one place, anywhere.
Message archive and search: With all your conversations stored in the cloud, you will never have to worry about losing your messages or having to delete them ever again.
IM and SMS chats: You can still chat with you contacts even if they are not on Yahoo! by using SMS (presently supported for Indonesian and US mobile contacts only).
News Content: Lets you always stay up to date with the latest news, and you can share articles with your friends.
Yahoo! Messenger One will be rolled out first in Indonesia and available in Bahasa Indonesian (the local language). Indonesia does not require any introduction. Still, this is the world’s fourth-most populous country with more than 230 million people and about 30 million Internet users. With its mobile phone customer base having more than doubled to 165 million users in less than three years, and with popular devices like Blackberry smartphones and low cost clones growing at a fast rate, it is not all that surprising mobile users have outpaced active Internet users by more than 5-to-1. Clearly this is a nation on the move and we are bringing Yahoo! Messenger One right to the users.
Yahoo! Messenger One is currently available for Blackberry 9000, Blackberry 9700, Blackberry 8900, and Blackberry 9630 devices. Just direct your mobile browser to http://m.yahoo.com/one to download the app and try it out. In future releases, Yahoo! Messenger One is expected to support additional devices and platforms. We’d also love to get your feedback so we can keep innovating and improving the user experience.
As you may be aware, we have been releasing new versions of Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone quite regularly to give our users quality experience on the iPhone. It is our hope that users will upgrade to the latest versions as time goes by.
In an effort to maintain our high quality and security standards, we will officially retire the Yahoo! Messenger version 1.0 for iPhone and iPod Touch on June 15th, 2010. This means that if you are currently using this version on your iPhone or iPod Touch, then you will no longer be able to sign in and use it after the retirement date of June 15th, 2010.
We have put together some commonly asked questions that should answer most of your questions.
1. Which iPhone/iPod Touch products are going to start the end-of-life process?
Yahoo! Messenger Version 1.0 for the iPhone & iPod Touch will be end-of-lifed on June 15th. That means starting June 15th you will not be able to sign in into Messenger using this version 1.0 app.
2. Why is the above product version being end-of-lifed?
Version 1.0 was our first Yahoo! Messenger release on the App Store. Since then, over the course of the year, we have added many useful features that provide you a much better experience on the device.
3. How do I know if the app that I am using is being end-of-lifed?
There are a couple of different ways you will know if you are using an app that is being end-of-lifed:
1. You will receive a system IM from Yahoo which will notify you about the end of life plans. If you received such a message you are probably using a version that is being end of lifed.
2. You could alternatively check the version of your app by tapping on the settings tab in your app and looking for the version information in the “About” section. If the version says 1.0 then your app is being end-of-lifed and you will need to upgrade.
4. If I am using the version that is being end-of-lifed, what version of the product should I upgrade to?
There are two ways you can upgrade to the latest version:
1. Tapping the App Store icon on your iPhone and search for Yahoo! Messenger (you may also see an update alert on your App Store icon)
2. Or click here to download it through iTunes.
The latest version requires your device to have iPhone OS 3.0 or newer. If you already have the right OS then you can simply follow the above steps. Otherwise you will first need to upgrade your device to a newer OS. You can find more about that here. Once you have upgraded your device, you can come back and follow the steps above.
5. What are some benefits of upgrading to the latest version?
There are a lot of cool features we added since we launched our first version. These features will significantly improve your Yahoo! Messenger experience. It will be difficult to list all of them but here are a few that were most requested by our users:
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).
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.
The ability to chat with your Windows Live contacts
And many more.
If you had any further questions or comments, please feel free to leave them in the comments area.
I am fairly certain that by now you must have known that Apple released its latest product – the iPad – last weekend on Saturday, April 3rd.
The iPad is the latest and probably the grandest entry to the world of Tablet computers – 9.7-inch display, half-inch thick, and weighing in at just a pound and a half. It runs the iPhone OS on it so all the same apps you use on your iPhone, like Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone, will be available for the iPad. Please try it out and let us know if you face any issues.
Talking about iPad Apps, Yahoo! introduced the Yahoo! Entertainment for iPad on Saturday. Some of you may have even downloaded this app over the weekend. This has wowed both consumers and press alike. TechCrunch has voted it as one of the best iPad apps. Using editorialized, real-time content, this Yahoo! Entertainment App surfaces and recommends TV shows, entertainment news, TV listings, book reviews, and a wide variety of popular videos from across the Web. Read more on the Yahoo! Entertainment Blog.
Do you plan to buy an iPad in future? – if you have already bought one, then which is your favorite App? – as always, please feel free to leave your comments.
It’s finally arrived – the all new Yahoo! Messenger for the iPhone application.
Now you can take the best of Yahoo! Messenger with you and stay in touch with friends through your iPhone or iPod Touch, no matter where you are.
A short demo video is included below. Here are the top features of the new app:
Instant message: Send text messages back and forth with your friends, including emoticons and web links.
Photo sharing: Take a photo on your iPhone and send that, or grab one from your photo gallery to share.
Stealth settings: Sign in as invisible, or change your status to invisible once you’re in the app.
Custom status message: Enter a custom status message for your friends to see. You can even include a web link with it.
Recent conversations archive: Under Messages, tap a contact and you’ll see your most recent conversation. You can type in a message from there to start chatting again.
Special idle state: If you have to leave the app for whatever reason, like a call comes in or you click a link in an IM that takes you to Safari, the Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone app will keep you signed in but change your status to idle. That way you can continue to receive messages and provided you return to the app within ten minutes, pick up where you left off.
Additional settings: Tap the Settings icon to change the sort order of your contact list, or to show or hide offline contacts in your list.
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).
Even if you don’t have an iPhone, Yahoo! Messenger is available for other types of mobile phones including the Blackberry. Visit our mobile site to find out what works with your phone.
As you may be aware, we have been releasing 
