June 23, 2009 on 9:49 am | In Voice | 1 Comment
Last year, we partnered with Jajah to power our paid voice services. Recently, they hit a major milestone that we want to congratulate them on – 1 billion calls connected.
Even more exciting for us is that the customer who placed the billionth call did it while using Yahoo! Messenger.
The historic billionth call on the JAJAH platform was made by Ila Zeff, a 29 year old resident of San Francisco, CA. Mrs Zeff made the call on Yahoo! Messenger using her Phone Out account. She was calling her mother in India, whom she calls at least weekly since moving to the United States from India.
Mrs Zeff said. “I use Yahoo! Voice to call my mother at least once a week. She still can’t believe I’m calling her from America and often says it sounds like I’m just up the road. I haven’t even told her I’m calling from my computer – she wouldn’t believe me.”
Congratulations to Jajah and special thanks to Mrs. Zeff for using Yahoo! Messenger to make her calls. We promise not to tell your mom.
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
March 26, 2009 on 2:02 pm | In Fun Stuff, Voice | 10 Comments
I may be dating myself, but remember using rotary phones as a kid? And how solid (but really heavy) those handsets were?
A company called YUBZ has brought them back to life. For awhile now, they’ve been selling their retro handsets for use with mobile phones. Just plug the adapter in your cellphone and voila, you’re transported back to 1978.
Well they’re about to make it work with voice over IP too with a new product called the YUBZ Talk Jack.
Connect the Talk Jack with the YUBZ handset, plug it into a USB port on your computer, and then use it to make retro calls through Yahoo! Messenger.
YUBZ handsets are $44.95; the Talk Jack accessory, available in pink or black, is $19.50. Head over to the YUBZ website to get your retro groove on. If you’re into bling, be sure check out the limited-edition gold handset. 
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
March 4, 2009 on 11:23 am | In Mac version, Voice | 5 Comments
If you’re a Mac user that lives and dies by your Address Book, you’ll love this tool. One of our developers wrote a plug-in for the Mac Address Book application that lets you start a call on Yahoo! Messenger right from your friend’s contact card. Once the script is installed, you can right click on any contact’s phone number and you’ll see an option for “Call with Yahoo! Messenger”.
Here’s how to install the script which will work in conjunction with Yahoo! Messenger for Mac 3.0 Beta 4:
1) Download the zip file and unzip the contents (1 file entitled “Yahoo! Messenger.scpt”)
2) Double click the hard drive icon on your desktop, go to the Library folder, and find the folder entitled “Address Book Plug-ins” (~/Library/Address Book Plug-Ins/)
3) Drag and drop the Yahoo! Messenger.scpt file you downloaded into the Address Book Plug-ins folder. (You may be asked to authenticate the installation)
4) After restarting the Address Book, you will be able to right-click on anyone’s phone number and call them through Yahoo! Messenger.
For more information on making low-costs calls from your Mac to your friend’s mobile or landline phones, please
visit our website.
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
February 10, 2009 on 11:40 am | In 9.0 version, Features, Voice | 17 Comments
Well, either our voice users are very organized or they have super secret calls they’re afraid will be discovered. To that end, we added back in the option to delete items from your call history list in Yahoo! Messenger 9.0.
Click a call to highlight it, then click the delete button above. To select multiple calls for deletion, use ctrl + click. To delete all your call history, click to select one in the list, then press ctrl + a on your keyboard to select them all. Note that we only show the one hundred most recent calls in the window. So if you delete them all, the next time you open that window the next hundred will be there.
And we know some users were experiencing a bug where the call history window was popping up every time you signed in (even if you didn’t have missed calls). We’ve fixed this problem so just sign out of Yahoo! Messenger 9.0, quit the application, then start it again and sign in. You’ll see the call history window one more time but on future sign-ins, you’ll only see it when you have missed calls or a voicemail.
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
June 20, 2008 on 2:30 pm | In Features, Mobile, Voice | 18 Comments
IM is great for keeping in constant contact with your friends. But eventually, we all have to sign off and as a result, we’re no longer reachable.
But now, with a couple of features available in Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 Beta, you no longer have to sign off and drop off. You can have incoming IMs and voice calls forwarded to your mobile phone. Here’s how it works…
Above your Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 contact list you’ll notice two new buttons – an icon of a small mobile phone and a Yahoo! Voice button. Click on the mobile phone icon and select “Set Up Mobile Device”. A small window will appear where you can register your mobile phone with Yahoo! Messenger.
Once registered, you can turn on IM forwarding. After signing out of Yahoo! Messenger, you will still appear online to your friends but with an “I’m Mobile” status message. Friends can then IM you and the messages will be forwarded to your mobile phone as text messages (SMS). Reply to the SMS from your phone and your friend will receive it in Messenger. So even when you’re away from your computer, you can still receive and reply to IMs.
To enable IM forwarding whenever you sign out, select the “Always Sign in to [your mobile number]” from the mobile phone icon. If you prefer to enable it occasionally, go to the Messenger menu when you’re ready to sign out and choose “Sign in to [your mobile number]”. Find out more about IM forwarding
The same kind of forwarding can be set up for voice calls. If you’re signed out and a friend tries to call you via PC-to-PC or on your Phone In number, the call can be immediately forwarded to another phone you have (mobile or landline). A Phone Out account is required. When calls are forwarded to you, they are subject to the standard per minute rates of our Phone Out service.
To enable call forwarding, click the “Yahoo! Voice” button above your contact list and select “Set Up Call Forwarding”. Indicate which number you want your incoming calls forwarded to and you’re done. Once you set up call forwarding, it will even forward calls when you are signed into Yahoo! Messenger. So if you prefer to receive calls in Messenger when you’re signed in, just return to the button and select “Call Forwarding > Disabled”. Find out more about call forwarding
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
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