Yahoo Messenger logo

Yahoo Messenger

By Yahoo Free Editors' Rating

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Editors' Review

Download.com Staff Oct 22, 2012

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.

Full Specifications

What's new in version 11.5.0.228

General

Release June 4, 2012
Date Added May 31, 2012
Version 11.5.0.228

Operating Systems

Operating Systems Windows, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7
Additional Requirements None

Popularity

Total Downloads 56,505,631
Downloads Last Week 0
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Developer's Description

Yahoo Messenger is a free service that allows you to see when friends come online and to send them instant messages. It also can alert you to new e-mail in your Yahoo Mail or Yahoo Personals accounts, or when you have upcoming events recorded in your Yahoo Calendar. Yahoo Messenger offers firewall support, a standby mode that minimizes the program until an Internet connection is made, the ability to save and print your conversations, and a tabbed interface that provides quick access to your favorite stocks, news, and sports scores.

Other features include the ability to create a chat room automatically, stock price alerts, the ability to send messages to friends (even if they're not online when you are), a Quick Compact mode that hides the Messenger tools to maximize your viewing area, Messenger Themes, and voice chat, which allows you to talk for free to anybody else on the Internet. It also includes Launchcast Radio, Yahoo Games, and Yahoo Audibles. Using a Webcam, you can see who you're chatting with or view the Webcam of any Yahoo member who has granted you access.

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