Many Indians living outside of their home country will be calling home to wish their friends and family a happy Diwali. If you’re one of them, Yahoo! Messenger is a great way to stay connected not only during Diwali, but any time.

If your family and friends are already using Yahoo! Messenger, you can make high-quality PC-to-PC calls for free. And with the new video calling feature in Yahoo! Messenger 10, you’ll feel like you’re right there with them. Get great quality video, synched audio, even a full-screen mode.

If your friends and family aren’t using Yahoo! Messenger, you can still call them using Messenger, and enjoy great savings. Sign up for a Yahoo! Messenger Phone Out account and you can make calls to any landline or mobile phone in India for just 7.9¢ a minute – right from your desktop.

You can also send free SMS text messages from Messenger to your friends and family in India if they are on the following carriers: Vodaphone Essar, Airtel, Spice, Escotel, Reliance. Their replies come right back to you in Yahoo! Messenger. Find out how to SMS from Messenger.

Even if you just plan to IM friends this weekend to celebrate the festival, you can dress up for it. Head over to Yahoo! Avatars and search on “india” to find Indian-themed clothing and backgrounds. Or add a little Diwali with a custom display image. Click on one of the designs below to make it your display image (you need to be signed into Messenger before you click):

      

From the looks of Diwali pictures I found on Flickr (see slideshow below), the festival is bright, warm and colorful. Lamps (called “diyas”) are lit in homes, fireworks are set off, sparklers color the night air, gifts are exchanged and people eat all kinds of delicious Indian sweets and snacks made specifically for the festival. To learn more about Diwali, head over to diwalifestival.org.

We wish all of our Indian users a Happy Diwali!

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

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

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

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.

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

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

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

If you are on Windows Vista and want to restore voice features to chat rooms and conferences, be sure you download and install the latest version of Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 Beta (9.0.0.1389).

Please note that this fix is not related to our Yahoo! Messenger for Vista version which does not yet have chat rooms or conferencing features. If you are on Windows Vista and want to visit chat rooms, you should use Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 Beta.

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

Currently, we manage our own end to end services that enable users to call from Yahoo! Messenger to regular or mobile phones around the world for as low as 1¢ a minute. Upon integration, Jajah will power these services and we will leverage their VoIP network for delivering Phone Out and In services.

Rest assured that our voice services will remain the same and as a user, you will not notice any change. We are committed to achieving the highest possible call quality and ease of use. This change does not affect our free PC to PC calls; these will continue to be handled by Yahoo! Messenger (and still be free!).

We’ll keep you posted here on the blog about any additional voice news. For more information on Yahoo! Messenger’s premium voice services, please visit http://voice.yahoo.com.

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

With this new version, you can make free PC-to-PC calls or sign up for a Phone Out account to make calls from your Mac to regular or mobile phones worldwide for as low as 1¢ a minute (see rates). And if you want friends to be able to call you on your Mac from any phone, sign up for a Phone In account and choose a number.

Download Yahoo! Messenger for Mac Beta

Now that our Mac version has voice, users can also enjoy two other handy features: free voicemail and call forwarding. If you’re away from your Mac or signed out of Yahoo! Messenger, friends can leave you a voicemail which is then delivered as an email attachment to an address of your choice.

If you want to make sure you don’t miss any calls, use the call forwarding feature to immediately send incoming calls to any regular or mobile phone number. Note that you do need a Phone Out account to use call forwarding.

There is also a new Voice & Calls section in the preferences menu. From there you can set what email address should receive your voicemails, what number your calls should get forwarded to, and handy things like whether or not you want iTunes to pause when a call comes in.

You’ll find the voice features in a new “Voice & SMS” button in your IM window. From there you can start a call, or send a free SMS (text) message to a friend’s mobile phone (note that your friend may be charged for receiving your SMS message depending on their mobile phone data plan).

The main contact list window also has a button near the bottom that opens up a dial pad. This is handy if you have a number you need to call that’s not associated with a contact.

Check out this short screencast to see how the new voice features work:

If you’re curious about the voice features but aren’t ready to sign up for a Phone Out account (or don’t have a friend you can call for free on PC-to-PC), try the “Make a free test call” button in the Voice preferences menu. During the free call you can record and playback your voice to check out the quality.

We really want your feedback on this new version, so after you’ve had some time to try it, please visit our feedback page to let us know what you like and don’t like.

On your mark, get set…start talking!

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

To use the Soundtrack feature in Yahoo! Messenger 8.1 or 9.0, first place a call to a friend. You can either call another Yahoo! Messenger friend for free on a PC-to-PC call, or call a friend’s mobile or other number using PC-to-phone. Once your friend answers and you start talking, click the sound icon, then click the music note icon. This will open a window that lets you select a MP3 file from your hard drive.

Once you’ve loaded the MP3 file into your call, it will play in the background for both you and your friend to hear. If it’s too loud, click the music note icon to adjust the volume. This is handy if you just want your music to play in the background softly during the call (or have some karaoke fun). The menu also allows you to forward or reverse to a specific point in the song.

I’ve used the Soundtrack feature for a few different things – introducing a friend to a new song, singing along to a track to entertain a friend, or even to listen to a MP3 podcast together. Try adding a soundtrack to your next call in Yahoo! Messenger.

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager