Yahoo Messenger for Windows

Used Yahoo Messenger for Windows?

Editors’ Review

Download.com staffNovember 26, 2018

Yahoo Messenger has been a staple of audio and text chats for a long, long time, and video chats are now handled without problem. The latest version of Yahoo Messenger adds enhancements to contacts and friends lists, as well as support for newsfeeds and visual tweaks. Yahoo Messenger installs easily but does require a free account.

Yahoo Messenger has long been used for text chats, for which it was a favorite app. The addition of audio and video chats put Yahoo Messenger up against a lot of other similar products, but it has remained a popular app on Windows. Each iteration has added new features and capabilities, and added things like radio streams, games, and more configuration options. Yahoo Messenger integrates with other Yahoo services like email.

We've used Yahoo Messenger for a decade and it's still a favorite messenger tool for many. With the new release tweaking some things and enhancing others, it gets better every time. While the video quality sometimes seems to drop more than we like, and there's an increasing number of ads for other Yahoo products, we still find Yahoo Messenger is a go-to app.

Yahoo Messenger for Windows

Used Yahoo Messenger for Windows?

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Full Specifications

GENERAL

Release: May 31, 2012

Latest update: November 26, 2018

Version: 11.5.0.228

OPERATING SYSTEMS

Platform: Windows

Operating System

Windows XP
Windows Vista
Windows 10
Windows 7

Additional Requirements: None

POPULARITY

Total Downloads: 56,505,631

Downloads Last Week: 0

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Last Updated

User Reviews

3.1/5

1275 User Votes

Pure Garbage
genebean66October 3, 2016
Pros
None It sucks after new version came out.
Cons
Im surprised Cnet did not review the new version of yahoo Messenger! So Im using old version to post my Review! This is Pure crap The newest version that is! They removed Audio and Video Chat! So you no longer cam chat with anyone anymore! Yahoo really sucks! I like the Old version Messenger better! Skype is crap its hard to log on to your account! So F U yahoo!
Summary
There is got to be a better Messenger that you can video chat or use audio to chat with family and friends! Thats way better than Yahoo new crappy messenger and crappy Skype! Hey if anybody knows if there is a better messenger that works like the old version of yahoo messenger and better than skype. please let me know. PS I dont like Facebook I will not use FB. I will not use their chat service! Thanks
This is a great product
mattwong1991May 12, 2016
Pros
I love using this app
Cons
This is a great app
Summary
I wonder if this user review will be read?
good in his glory days...
cesaurFebruary 13, 2014
Pros
- The emoticons. The best of all out there. - The UI, if you clean it up a little of all useless plugins.
Cons
Well 1st of all, Messenger was a really good piece of software BEFORE v10. After v10 I could saw thousands of YM's "GDI Objects" in Task Manager - meaning LOUSY PERFORMANCE. There are few things unacceptable for a software that had about 20 versions (10.1, 10.5, 11.5 and so on included). -archive indexing: horrible. It's like scanning your whole registry everytime you press View Conversation History. -Yahoo's spam "protection": when you first write a message containing a link to someone that is offline, most chances are they won't get that. You guessed it, it's now considered a spam by Y. software geniuses. -TABS. You either receive a message and the window is popping up in your FACE, or, if you tick "Minimize the message window to the taskbar", it MINIMIZES IT when someone else wrote you something IN ANOTHER TAB. -Audibles: gone. No explanation why. -EMVironments: gone. Servers offline. Doodle was really useful, powerful and innovative. Way to go EXCLUDING THAT!!
Summary
Yahoo Messenger is old fashioned. You can't go out to catch fun (cinemas, beaches and so on) and begin to ask for yahoo Ids of cute girls you meet so you can buzz them on Yahoo Messenger! You would look like some weird creature that just escaped from a psychiatric home! Whatsapp, twitter, 2go, facebook etc have taken over. Move with the tide.
not worth free
mynameismynameDecember 23, 2013
Pros
you can chat if you like to let everyone see
Cons
now yahoo has sold out to big corporations and wants to know who you are by a phone number so they can track you information and what you are interested in.
Summary
Well go ahead and let us see who you are with your real name and where you live so we can all make money off of you. This is the new yahoo way. They want you to list your phone number in order to set up a account. Then these big investors watch your surfing habits and see where to invest in the stock markets, So if you fill comfortable with someone watching your chat and your surfing habits and making money from you then go ahead and use it but please can you at least use you name and address for all of us so we can all make money from you. Lets spread the wealth if your willing to give away your privacy.
Used to be a good product in the early to mid XP days.
CheeselUvinraTJuly 24, 2013
Pros
1. Can communicate with other yahoo users. 2. Nice skins.
Cons
1.Online installation failed from messenger.yahoo.com on Windows 7, I had to download the offline install from filehippo. 2. Audibles are not animated after being received on recipients computer. 3. Had trouble connecting to yahoo email from the email notifier link until I switched my yahoo email to use non ssl sign in. 4. Does not load if using Microsoft Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit unless the programs Data Execution Prevention box is unchecked in EMET. 5. No email support anymore. Seems a lot of big internet companies just try to pawn us users off to a forum to get help from other users. 6. Has not been updated in quite a long time. 7. Would like to see a version without social integration(Facebook) and also without webcam microphone support since I have no desire to use either.
Summary
To me there's more cons than pros I wouldn't recommend it until Yahoo fixes a lot of problems with it.
MALWARE, VIRUS, POPUPS!!!! STAY AWAY
yellowsnow2July 10, 2013
Pros
none malicious stay away
Cons
Added toolbars I wasn't ask about..Pop ups...So I ran spy bot afterwards. 100+ malicious entries. Some zip file that could not be opened and set off my antivirus when spybot tried to remove it....Some annoying pop up thing called "sweetpacks"...Changed my home page to the sweetpacks pop up page.
Summary
Still trying to remove this crap.....STAY AWAY!!! MALICIOUS DOWNLOADS
This release is terrible!!
June 3, 2013
Pros
The online chat part still works, as it always did.
Cons
It is unreliable. Offline messages are 'lost', they do not go thru most of the time. Conversation history is sometimes lost. The way they have changed the conversation history makes it impossible to find anything. It used to be sorted by date, and you had a list of dates, why on earth did they change that??
Summary
I agree with other reviews, this release of Yahoo IM is a total DISGRACE. I have worked in the computer field for about 30 years, and I am surprised that Yahoo would let a highly visible product like this one go live with all these errors. Where was the Quality Assurance team when this came out??? It is not being fixed in a timely matter, either, these problems have persisted for months.
this is complete and total you know what
Pineapple1986May 31, 2013
Pros
the only pro is that it is better then email and it does not use skype
Cons
about one out of 10 poeple i add will really add to my messenger the rest just give me a error message it also has cuase i sudden increase in pop up ads and slowed my email to the point of insanity
Summary
if you can live without it do not get it
A disgrace...
longtalkerMay 15, 2013
Pros
Has the ability to leave offline messages, which the recipient gets upon logging in even if the sender is no longer online. Allows setting yourself visible only to certain contacts. Both features are nice and Skype does not have them. However, read on..
Cons
This software has got worse and worse over the years. Voice calls barely make it through now, and most of the time you just get ringing on one side and a frozen call warning window on the other, with the ability to press Answer only long after the caller has hung up. Offline messages are only delivered about one out of 5 cases, with the rest of them being "lost" somewhere in space. Message history only sometimes shows you the most recent messages written, other times it just says that history cannot be retrieved. And many other bugs that no-one cares to fix, and which make YM unusable.
Summary
What's more, there is absolutely no support for this software, and the big company behind it don't mind it making a complete mockery of their name. I've submitted error reports countless times, pleading with them to release a new version that fixes the above-mentioned bugs. No response to date, and no new version for years. I myself am giving this wreck of a messenger up, after many years of use, in favour of its much stronger competitors, Gmail and Skype.
Works well most of the time
bogrunner39April 22, 2013
Pros
Yahoo messenger has problems when trying to upload pictures.
Cons
Yahoo messenger has problems when trying to upload pictures.
Summary
In order to get Yahoo Messenger to upload pictures, I h ave to run it through Mozilla Firefox.

Developer’s Description

Communicate instantly with your friends using avatars, PC-to-PC calling, and emoticons.