It’s a small world: sharing contacts
May 18, 2007 on 8:35 am | In Features | 11 Comments
This post comes from the dusty vault of “highly useful but rarely used” features in Yahoo! Messenger for Windows (8.1)…
A co-worker asked me for the mailing address of my friend Richard the other day. I went into my Address Book but realized I didn’t have it. I then remembered the Send/Request Contact Details feature in Yahoo! Messenger.
I found Richard in my contact list, right-clicked on his name and selected “Request Contact Details” (Ctrl+Shift+R). On Richard’s end, he received an IM stating that I was requesting his info. He could decline my request, or click a link to choose what contact details he wanted to send me.
Richard chose to send all of his contact info to me, so with just a click, I added all of his vital data to my Address Book, including home and work addresses, email, phone numbers, even his birthday. This feature works the other way too – I can right-click on Richard and choose “Send My Contact Details” (Ctrl+Shift+C) to provide him my information. Your contact details are all stored in your personal profile on Messenger, accessible by going to the Messenger menu and choosing “My Contact Details”.
A similarly handy feature is the ability to share one or more contacts on your list with a friend. This is really helpful when your friend is new to the world of IM and may not have everyone’s IDs yet. Just right click on a friend in your list and choose “Send My Messenger List…” (Ctrl+Shift+M).
A window then pops up showing your contact list – just click the box next to each contact you want to share with your friend (or select all). Your friend will receive an IM, and with just a click, can add the friends you shared with them to their own contact list. It’s much easier than having to send them individual Yahoo! IDs or email addresses for each friend.
For more tips on managing and sharing your contacts, visit the Finding, Adding, Sharing friends page.
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
I can’t seem to find this feature on the Mac version. I think I missed Beta 2 or something when you introduced this.
Thanks for the hint anyways
(btw, I hate this feature when it is used in abuse. a new kid makes and id and one of my friends sends him the whole list (including me). i don’t want that kid. fk him. why did he add him? I have this feature when complete strangers annoy me. i’d like an option to disable this. And mass messaging.)
Comment by Lucky — May 18, 2007 #
yes i need a way to disable this it can be used by online predators and pedophiles please make a way to disable this and the photosharing it annoys me having to click decline to the photosharing all the time it annoys me !!!
Comment by Catherine — May 18, 2007 #
Another useful way to use this is if you change your contact display name.
I know a lot of people accidentally start out with their first and last name as their display name and don’t realize other people see that until someone c&p’s part of a conversation with them.
With this a person can change their display name then resend their contact details and if the person accepts the new data it will override the old display name.
Comment by Bobby — May 18, 2007 #
Excellent tip Bobby – thanks!
Sarah Bacon
Comment by Administrator — May 18, 2007 #
Stranger: On my Y!Messenger in french from France, this feature is always disabled into right-click menu… But keyboard shortcut open window to start sharing !
Comment by Olivier D. alias ze kat — May 19, 2007 #
http://blog.messenger.yahoo.com/blog/2007/05/18/its-a-small-world-sharing-contacts/
Comment by khang — May 28, 2007 #
it is a very good thing to becos it makes u know what is going on around you
Comment by yinka — May 28, 2007 #
this site is good because get one familiar to the blog
Comment by yinka — May 28, 2007 #
I have a problem with adding new contacts… I made a brand new yahoo user to use it on my website, to send news through messengers to all our readers… I published an announcement for every reader of the site to add the user violamaniaro in their lists.. There was no problem with the first 23 who added me… Then it came a wave of simoultaneous requests for add… And from that point none of the ids i wanted to accept is showned in my list… What’s the problem? If there’s a time limit of adding new contacts, when can I start readding new people?
Comment by eL Lunes — May 28, 2007 #
This function worked great for me in 8.xx and it appears in 9.0x too. However, in 9.0x it doesn’t seem to work. What am I missing? I tried this with a few friends and had no success with any.
Comment by Nathan — September 15, 2008 #
Hi Nathan,
I am not sure what version your friends are using, but they need to be on Yahoo! Messenger 8.1 or 9.0 to swap contact info with you. Hope that helps,
Sarah Bacon
Comment by Administrator — September 15, 2008 #