Yahoo! Messenger for Vista Gets Voice & SMS

vistavoice

Despite all the efforts made by Skype and Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger is still the most popular instant messenger around. About a year ago, they told us that a Vista specific version of Yahoo! Messenger was coming and they gave us a preview of what it looked like. Yahoo! went silent after that announcement, which left us wondering whether the development was stopped.

Hopes regained after a downloadable preview of Yahoo! Messenger for Vista was rolled out last December. It lacked few features like Voice and SMS. Yesterday, they announced that they’ve filled the gap by adding some new feature. Here’s a list of key features in Yahoo! Messenger for Vista:

  • Voice
    • Voice (PC2PC & Phone In/ Phone Out)
    • Voice Visualizations (including WPF 3D integration)
    • SMS
    • Integrated text/voice window for easier navigation
    • Keypad-only mode for quick, simple phone calls
  • Matrix Mode Conversation Window
  • Mail Alerts
  • Additional features and enhancements:
    • New and Optimized for Vista
    • WPF Interface
    • Skin Chooser
    • Customizable Contact List
    • Vector-based
    • Tabbed Conversations
    • Windows Sidebar Gadget

Webcam view and chatrooms are still missing, but I’m pretty positive that they’ll make their way into Yahoo Messenger once they push it out of beta. Take a look at the screencast of Yahoo! Messenger for Vista before downloading it:

Well, it certainly looks the fanciest instant messengers of all time. Neatly designed! Download Yahoo! Messenger for Vista Beta

This post was published by on May 2, 2008

About the Author: Thilak Rao works as a Social Media Expert. He is one of the first professional bloggers from India, and he loves to write, travel and click photos. Follow him on Twitter @thilak

  • http://www.stupidwiz.com Jug

    That’s great! I’ve been waiting for the voice feature. :P

  • http://www.gadgets4nowt.co.uk Wii

    I read the headline and thought Wow, then realised there is not much to shout about here, other than it being Vista specific of course.

    SMS over a messenger service isn’t something I’ve tried, may have to give that a go to annoy my mates!

  • http://ubuntusite.com deric

    I definitely love YM but it’s very disappointing to know that they didn’t push through the development for Linux. I hope they will reconsider this as ubuntu is beginning to get a share of windows.

  • http://www.greatpriceshere.com Nicole Price

    I am still scared to shift to Vista and am quite comfortable with my XP. I use all three to IM and skype for phone calls for computer to computer with webcam facilities. Skype offers the best yet for that and Yahoo for other IMs. Google is not too bad for typed IMs.

  • http://green-flamingo.com Nathaniel

    This sounds phenomenal. I am glad I have Vista!

  • http://www.exposedseo.com Dr SEO

    Well, it only took them like 3 years to catch up with msn. Glad they are improving though.

  • http://www.evawhite.com Eva White

    Yahoo has always been my favorite. I like yahoo and find it the most user friendly and now with new features I think it would be great.

  • http://technodorm.com Fahad

    The new design looks brilliant!

  • http://green-flamingo.com Nathaniel

    After using it, well having it, I like the features. I don’t know any friends that use Yahoo!, and I only recently joined.

  • http://www.netage.co.za Marketing Man

    Well done to Yahoo. Web 2 design rocks.