Yahoo Messenger in the recent times was seen as a messenger which is now not that good for chatting as it was earlier, but now as we see Marissa Mayer as the new CEO, there is some new ray of hope that the Yahoo products would be quite good once again with addition of loads of features. The Yahoo! Messenger for Windows and Mac comes with excellent features now, and the chat client does a good job in voice and video calling, sharing screens and photos, sending SMS’es and conferencing, and do a lot more stuff.
Yahoo Messenger for Windows & Mac Features
- Instant Messaging: Sending real-time text messages to your friends
- PC-to-PC Calls: Using the microphone or speakers, one can make voice calls from PC to PC
- SMS (Text Messaging): Text messages can be sent from a Yahoo Messenger to friends’ mobile number for free
- Webcam: Making video calls by plugging in your webcam to the computer, or using the camera of the laptop
- Conferencing: Make a video call conference with your miltiple friends
- Chat with friends from other clients: Windows Live™ Messenger, Reuters Messaging, and Lotus Sametime
- File Sharing: Files of a maximum size of 2GB can be transferred through the messenger
Latest version of Yahoo Messenger for Windows OS: ver. 11.5.0.228
Latest version of Yahoo Messenger for Mac OS: ver. 3.0.2 build 235554
There are loads of other things included in both the Windows and Mac versions of the Yahoo! Messenger, but the Mac version has got a few features less, and here is what is more advantageous in the Windows based Yahoo Messenger.
Windows-only features in the Yahoo Messenger [not seen in Mac version]:
- Photo Sharing: Sharing the photos from your Desktop or Flickr, and both of them watching it on the same window
- Yahoo! Search: Start a web search right from your Yahoo! Messenger window
- Yahoo! Address Book: View and edit your Yahoo! Address Book information for your contacts right from Messenger
- Plug-ins: Several plugins are available for the messenger to enhance the interface and the user experience
- Audibles: Send an animated, talking character to a friend to liven up your IM conversation
- Skins and IMvironments, as well as Ringtones
There is Facebook Syncing where the social network advantage would be taken by the Yahoo Messenger to chat with the Facebook friends through the messenger. The messenger would try to connect to Facebook account of yours for the permission for the first time.
Plug-ins for Yahoo Messenger for Windows OS
- Yahoo Movie Trailer: One can watch the trailers of the latest movies directly from the messenger
- Zync: A prototype from Yahoo allows the users to watch the videos together with the friends, in sync and in the real time
- WebEx Co-Browse: With WebEx Co-Browse, browse the web together instead of IMing URLs back and forth. Shop together, make travel plans, view photos together and much more
- WackyB Twitter Sync: Lets the user tweet using the Yahoo Messenger
Download Yahoo! Messenger for Windows & Mac
To download the latest version of Yahoo Messenger for both the OS versions, go to the following links:
Windows | Mac OS