WebProNews

Tag: yahoo messenger

  • Yahoo Relaunches Yahoo Messenger With Redesign, New Features

    Yahoo just announced a new version of Yahoo Messenger, which features a complete redesign of the platform across iOS, Android, and the web as well as within Yahoo Mail.

    “The new Yahoo Messenger provides a super fast, beautiful and smart way to send messages, photos and animated GIFS in 1:1 and group conversations,” a spokesperson for Yahoo tells WebProNews.

    The new Messenger lets users search for and send GIFs from the app (powered by Tumblr), share as many as hundreds of photos in a message, instantly, and in high resolution. This is powered by Flickr’s photo platform, and photos are displayed in a horizontal scrolling carousel.

    Users can also “like” photos, messages, or GIFs that are shared.

    Another helpful feature is that you can take messages, photos, or GIFs back even after they’ve been sent. Good for “late night” messaging.

    “We’re excited to introduce the next generation of Yahoo Messenger. It has long been one of our core products but it was time to redesign the product from the ground up and reinvest in one of the most important products in our history as a company,” said Jeff Bonforte, senior vice president of communication products and engineering at Yahoo. “The messaging space has grown dramatically, yet people ultimately want a fast and easy way to communicate with each other. The new Yahoo Messenger was designed first and foremost to meet those needs. This is just the beginning of what’s to come.”

    The new Yahoo Messenger is available globally starting today. It’s in the process of rolling out. For now, it’s just in English, but will expand to additional languages soon.

    Image via Yahoo

  • Yahoo Acquires Xobni To Improve Yahoo Messenger

    Yahoo is confirming all kinds of acquisition rumors this week. Well, at least two. Yesterday, it was Qwiki, which the company acquired for somewhere around $50 million, according to one report.

    Today, Yahoo has officially announced its acquisition of Xobni, which was rumored over a month ago.

    A Yahoo spokesperson tells WebProNews in an email:

    We have acquired Xobni, a company dedicated to smarter inbox and contact management. The Xobni team developed a platform that is smart and intuitive — it processes contacts the way you do naturally in your mind. Xobni instantly provides a full view of each contact, complete with a photo, job title, company details, and email history, as well as updates from Facebook and Twitter. This acquisition will help us make improvements to Yahoo! Mail, Messenger and our overall communications offering on both desktop and mobile.

    Xobni continues on tis blog:

    We know that Xobni products have woven their way deep into your daily life. Many of our product improvements have come as a result of your enthusiastic, detailed feedback. We often hear customers say “I couldn’t live without Xobni.” Not to worry — we aren’t pulling the rug out from under you. If you’re using a Xobni product today, you can keep using it. To find out our plan for each product, please check out the FAQ. Of course, soon you’ll be able to use Yahoo! products with Xobni goodness baked right in.

    OK, back to the announcement. Did you ever meet someone who truly “gets” you? That’s how we feel about Yahoo!. The power within every Xobni product is that it responds to how you communicate. Every day you demonstrate who and what is important to you. That can benefit not just your inbox or smartphone, but the many services you use. Yahoo! gets that, and they want us to use our platform to make many Yahoo! services better for you. This is just the type of gig we’ve been preparing for throughout our history. We look forward to letting the results speak for themselves. Stay tuned….

    According to All Things D, who first reported on the rumored acquisition, the price is “upwards of $30 million”.

  • Yahoo Kills Messenger In Yahoo Mail Classic

    Yahoo announced today in a help forum that it is shutting down Yahoo Messenger in Yahoo Mail Classic. The company writes:

    At Yahoo!, we’re focused on making your daily habits more inspiring and entertaining. That means we’re constantly reviewing our products and experiences and in some cases, have to make tough decisions to no longer support a product.

    After much thought, we have decided to shut down Messenger in Yahoo! Mail Classic by March 22, 2013. This means that you will no longer be able to send IMs to your contacts from Yahoo! Mail Classic.

    Yahoo suggests that you upgrade to the new Yahoo Mail, where Mesenger continues to be available or use the Yahoo Messenger client.

    (via Digital Trends)

  • Yahoo Messenger 11.5 Update Adds New Features

    On Tuesday, March 13th, I learned about a new update to Yahoo Messenger. As an avid user of this messaging system, I was excited to test it out and to see what changes they have unveiled, because it has been quite a while since the directory giant had released an update for this software.

    The update may seem deceiving, because the update’s release number is the same as the previous release (11.5); however, after a user downloads the new release of this quality messaging client, the user will see some new features that I have elaborated about below. These are two new features that I am glad to see integrated into YM:

    • Recent Contacts – Above the friends lists that you have created within Yahoo Messenger, a “Recent Contacts” list will appear that will display the buddies that you have recently messaged with. If you would like this feature disabled, you can turn it off within the “Show/Hide” section of the Contacts menu.

    • Tabbed Conversations: – Instead of having multiple windows for multiple conversations, all of your active conversations are now integrated within one messaging window. To toggle between conversations with other YM users, select their username from the list of tabs at the bottom of the messaging window.

    If you are an existing user of Yahoo Messenger, or you would like to try it out, download this new release here. This release is only available for Windows users.

    Please be sure to leave any feedback below pertaining to the new release of this quality instant messaging client.

  • Free Text Messaging App From Yahoo: Hub

    Were you just thinking to yourself: “I wish there were an easier way to have conversations from my phone?” If so, Yahoo claims to have the solution with its mobile app Hub, which comes with the tagline: “conversations made easy”.

    In this announcement for the app on the Yahoo Mail blog, there is only mention of an Android version, and no mention of an iPhone version, though an iPhone is shown in the image provided (above) – I guess to just show that iPhone users can still get text messages from it.

    “For those heavy texters out there, we are excited to introduce Hub, a fast and easy-to-use mobile messaging app that allows you to send text messages and have group conversations for free,” says the Yahoo Mail team. “Hub allows you to easily add participants to any conversation thread so it’s easy to switch from private messaging to a group conversation. Whether it is just keeping up with a close group of friends or making spontaneous plans, you no longer have to deal with scattered messages.”

    “What’s more, Hub allows you to send messages to anyone without incurring any text messaging fees,” the company adds. “Yes, you heard us right. There are no text messaging fees – messages are sent over WIFI or using your data connection – and Hub is device agnostic, which means you can communicate with anyone on any mobile device as long as you have their mobile phone numbers. Your friends are not required to download the app in order to reply to your messages although they are strongly encouraged to do so in order to enjoy the full feature set!”

    This isn’t the first app to to offer free text messaging, but the Yahoo brand probably won’t hurt in it getting some downloads. It has group messaging, and support for local and international SMS messages.

    You do have to have a Yahoo ID to use the app from the looks of it.

    Earlier this week, Yahoo launched a new version of Yahoo Messenger (11.5). Yahoo lists the highlights as follows:

  • Tabbed IMs – With tabbed IMs, all of your IMs are in one window and you can easily tab back and forth between conversations.
  • Improved Spam Management – You can now easily ignore multiple spam add requests with one easy click.
    New Social Games – We’ve added some popular new games to Messenger 11.5 including Backyard Monsters, Township and ourWorld—and have made it easier to get your friends involved in sharing your game activities.
  • Smart Archiving — Conversations are easily archived by friends with the most recent conversation showing up first. These conversations can be accessed from any PC or web browser where you’ve signed into Y! Messenger.
  • Yahoo Releases First Ever Android Apps

    Yahoo Releases First Ever Android Apps

    Yahoo has launched Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Messenger apps for Android. These are the first Android apps Yahoo has ever offered.

    "Yahoo! Mail and Messenger are available as separate streamlined apps, however they offer common features that will give you a better mobile communications experience that’s easy to use and immediately familiar," says Yahoo Mail Product Manager Lee Parry. "Both apps let you compose messages with rich text, express yourself through our many Yahoo! emoticons, access Yahoo! Address Book and phone contacts, as well as share photos that you’ve taken on your phone."

    Yahoo Android Apps

    "The Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger Android apps offer many of the core features that you find in their PC counterparts," adds Perry. "In the Yahoo! Mail Android app, you can search for important messages with our Full Search and Smart Folders features and organize messages into the same personal folders you use on the PC. In Messenger you can set your Yahoo! Messenger status message, view the status messages of your buddy list contacts and chat with your MSN/Windows Live Messenger friends."

    The apps can be downloaded from the Android Market on devices that support Android 2.0 and higher.