Last week we released an update of Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 Beta. That new release includes a fix for Windows Vista users who use 9.0, enabling voice features in chat rooms and in private conferences. Previously, voice did not work for Vista users but in this latest release we added a codec to enable it.
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.
Today we launched a new update to Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 Beta. This version includes a few new features along with bug fixes, stability and speed improvements, plus some changes to the contact list. Here’s a quick look at what’s new:
Bigger emoticons
They’re not massive, but a little bit bigger so you can express yourself with more oomph. ( vs. ). We also enabled a few more for use in your status message.
Games are back!
We know you missed them in the earlier releases of 9.0, but games are now back! Click the new “Activities” button while you IM to choose a game to play with a friend (or for a plug-in). Checkers, pool, toki toki boom…you know the rest. Note that your friend needs to be on 8.1 or this latest release of 9.0 Beta to play games with you.
Status message improvements
The status message menu has been split into two parts - one where you can indicate your availability (busy, available) and the other for putting in a custom message or a link you want to share. That way even if you’re away from IM, you can still share a funny thought, webpage or video with your friends via your status message.
Yahoo! Updates
Yahoo! Messenger is one of the first products to showcase what your friends are doing on Yahoo!. When a friend buzzes a favorite news story or changes their Avatar, a Yahoo! Update is displayed next to that friend in your contact list (with more detail in their contact card). So even if you’re not actively communicating with them, you can still stay up to date with what they’re doing. To manage what Updates you broadcast, click on your display image in the contact list, then click the “Manage my updates” link. We’ll add more types of updates in the future.
New contact list format button
When we first launched 9.0 Beta, a lot of users weren’t crazy about the extra space in the contact list we created for display images and status messages. So we made two views available for your contact list - detailed or compact. In this latest version, we added a button next to the contact search bar to change it, along with other settings like “Show Offline Contacts”.
Import Contacts - new & improved
Select “Import Contacts” from the Contacts menu and you can add friends from address books you have on other sites like Gmail, Orkut, Yahoo! Address Book, Hotmail, AOL and many more. We’ll pull in your contacts and make it easy for you to start talking with them on Yahoo! Messenger.
Voice in chat rooms for Vista users & faster Captcha process
We know our Windows Vista users have been waiting a really long time for this. We added a fix to this latest version of Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 Beta that allows Windows Vista users on 9.0 to use voice in chat rooms (and conferences). We also changed the chat room verification process. You can now enter the Captcha code right in the chat room window instead of having to go off to another page.
New IM notification toast
If your IM conversation window falls into the background, this new feature will make sure you don’t miss out on the latest message from your friend. When a new message comes in to the background window, a small notification will pop up from the lower right corner of your screen with the beginning text of the IM your friend just sent. (You can turn this off under Messenger > Preferences > Messages.)
We’ve also welcomed some new countries to Yahoo! Messenger with this latest release. If you’re in Colombia, Chile, Peru or Venezuela, we now have versions of Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 in your local language.
User feedback is extremely important to us. We hope that after you’ve lived with this new version of Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 Beta for awhile, you’ll stop by our feedback page and let us know what you like or don’t like about it. You can also select “Send Feedback” anytime from the Help menu in the contact list window.
To see some of these new features in action, watch the demo video below. We hope you enjoy this latest version of Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 Beta!
Say the word “Beta” to a computer user and you might not get the last syllable out because they’ll already be running away at breakneck speed. Understandably, a lot of users avoid upgrading to stick with what they have, especially if it’s working fine.
I’ve been using Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 Beta since it launched in October of last year and it’s been great. Yes, it has its “moments” like any Beta software, but overall it’s very stable. So I thought I would share my favorite things about this new version which might encourage you to give it a try too. Some of these have been the subject of dedicated blog articles, so click the links to get more in-depth info. Or click here to watch a video demo.
#1 New emoticons & skins
All the communication functions of Messenger are great, but the real fun is in the extras like emoticons and skins. This version has six new emoticons inspired by users – Wasn’t Me!, Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down, Rock On , Hurry Up and Don’t Want To See. 9.0 Beta also has a brand new set of skins. Also, did you know you can insert some of the basic emoticons in your status message?
#2 Compact v. detailed view for contacts
We’ve got two views for your contact list in 9.0 Beta. Use the detailed view to see larger display images for your friends and get access to the hover menu to quickly IM, SMS or call a contact. Or choose the compact view to keep each contact on one line.
#3 Inline video player
This is one of the coolest new features in 9.0 Beta. When you send a video link to a friend from a popular site like YouTube (or they send one to you), the video player appears right in the IM window. Just click to watch the clip – no need to jump off to the video website. This makes it much easier to watch and talk about the video at the same time.
#4 It’s all about “hover”
9.0 Beta adds some handy features when you hover on a contact. In detailed list mode, hovering on a contact brings up a menu to IM, call or SMS. When you’re in compact mode, hovering on a contact brings up the full-featured contact card. Depending on the info you have for that contact, you can IM, call a specific number, SMS, send email and even edit their contact info – all with a single click.
#5 Same great features
All of my favorite features are still in 9.0 Beta – the Yahoo! Music LAUNCHcast plug-in, file transfer, photo sharing, ability to IM with my Windows Live™ Messenger friends, IM forwarding to my mobile phone when I’m offline, and free PC-to-PC calls. Check out our features page to see all the great stuff available in 9.0.
Why not give 9.0 Beta a try? Remember, you can always uninstall and go back to 8.1 if you’re not satisfied. And after you’ve used 9.0 for awhile, be sure to leave us feedback about your experience.
Here’s what About.com had to say about our latest version:
For what its worth, Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 delivers a pretty smooth experience from start to finish. The recent addition of access to contacts on Windows Live Messenger (formerly MSN Messenger) makes Yahoo! pretty strong competition for the AIM/ICQ client and other standalone single protocol clients; in fact, if I were the others, I would take a page from the Yahoo! book about what is right with their client, including the strong deliverance of experience-making features, such as Yahoo’ new in-line media player, new voice call features and a wide-range of new personalization options.
Thanks again to everyone who took the time to vote. We really appreciate it!
Last week, Flickr.com announced its new video feature, allowing Flickr Pro users to upload videos and share them online alongside their photos.
As a result, we added support for Flickr videos to the inline media player in Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 Beta. If you share a Flickr video link or a friend shares one with you, you can watch the video right in the IM window.
Unlike conventional video sharing services like Yahoo! Video or Youtube, Flickr videos are designed to be “long photos” that capture slices of life. To encourage this, Flickr has limited the length of uploaded videos to 90 seconds. While that may seem like a really short video, it’s ideal for sharing those clips you capture on your digital camera or mobile phone (which often go unshared). Check out a couple of the uploaded videos from the early beta testers:
To share your own Flickr videos during an IM conversation, just copy and paste the link from the browser address bar when you’re on the video page (e.g. http://www.flickr.com/photos/fraying/2391084921/).
To find out more about the new Flickr video features, check out the Flickr blog.
Last week we released an update of Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 Beta. That new release includes a fix for Windows Vista users who use 9.0, enabling voice features in chat rooms and in private conferences. Previously, voice did not work for Vista users but in this latest release we added a codec to enable it.
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). We also enabled a few more for 
, Hurry Up and Don’t Want To See. 9.0 Beta also has a 
Last week, 