To download the new version, tap the App Store icon on your iPhone and search for Yahoo! Messenger (you may also see an update alert on your App Store icon). Or click here to download it through iTunes. We hope you enjoy this latest version. If you have any technical issues with Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone, please send us feedback by tapping on “Settings”, then scrolling down and tapping on “Report Problem”.

This was announced earlier this month, by our Global Product Manager in the US, Thyaga Vasudevan.

Now you can enjoy IMing on the go with your friends from WLM too!

Tasla – Yahoo!7 Messenger team

Yahoo!7 Messenger for Windows has many more features than most of us use in a given day. Our preferences menu is chock full of useful settings that can help you customise your Yahoo!7 Messenger or make you a more efficient user.

One preference I always set when I upgrade to a new version is “Always use my fonts and colours” (Messenger > Preferences > Appearance). That means that no matter what quirky font, colour or size my friends use when they message me, it will always show up in the style I prefer (Arial, 12 for anyone who’s keeping track). I think I discovered this after my college roommate kept insisting on IMs with fluorescent green Tahoma letters in size 16.

While I like to think of myself as young, my aging eyes do betray me. I got tired of squinting at my list to find a friend so a few years ago, I changed my preferences to increase the font size of my contact list (you can also change the font). You can even have online friends show up in bold so they’re more noticeable. You’ll find this ageist setting in Preferences > Appearance, under the Messenger List section.

We’ve all dealt with random people IM’ing us. Sometimes we know them, sometimes they are spammers. To help me quickly separate the riff raff from my real friends, I changed my preference to “When I receive messages from people not on my Messenger list, show the messages in a single list” (Messenger > Preferences > Messages). That way, the messages are all listed in one window and I can quickly reply or ignore them (or mark them as spam). They appear in a window that looks similar to the one used for offline messages.

On the efficiency tip are a couple of shortcuts that may come in handy. If you’re like me and leave your Messenger window open all day long, you can save a step when it comes time to shut down at the end of the day. Under Preferences > General you’ll find a setting for “Sign out of Messenger when I close the main window”. Select that and save yourself the extra step of signing out and then closing down Messenger.

And last but not least is a shortcut you can use to update your status message more quickly. You may already know about the Windows + y shortcut, but do you know the Windows + Shift + y shortcut? That one takes you right to the waiting status message menu where you can start typing your deep thoughts and important updates. For this to work, you first have to enable it under Preferences > General; look for the checkbox that says “Enable system-wide shortcut keys to activate Messenger”.

What are some of your favourite settings, shortcuts, tips or tricks in Yahoo!7 Messenger? Leave a comment to let us know.

You can find a full list of emoticons currently available to Yahoo!7 users, here.

But did you know there is also an easter egg inside Yahoo!7 Messenger 9 and 10? That’s right, there are hidden emoticons!

Check out the conversation I was having with Tasla from our Mail team above, using some of the normal and some of the hidden emoticons! See how they liven up our conversation?

Be sure to check out the complete list of hidden emoticons and let us know which one is your favourite!

Happy chatting,
Kate – Yahoo!7 Messenger Team

What are audibles I hear you ask? Well they are animated, talking characters that you can send to your friends and family to liven up your IM conversations when using Yahoo!7 Messenger.

Here’s a few I sent to Tasla earlier:

You can access these audibles right now in Yahoo!7 Messenger, you will find them conveniently located directly below our super cool Disney ones on the menu.

Which one’s your favourite?

Happy Chatting,
Kate – Yahoo!7 Messenger Team

Fear not, we will still be posting about all things Mail! We noticed how popular chat within mail was, so it is only fitting that we let you know all about Messenger.

Yahoo!7 Messenger is a free product that allows you to converse in real-time with your friends and family – literally at your fingertips.

You can choose to download the Yahoo!7 Messenger client and install it on your notebook or desktop computer, the flexibility of Yahoo!7 Messenger for the Web, or you may prefer the mobility of Yahoo!7 Mobile Messenger.

Some of the exciting features that Yahoo!7 Messenger has to offer, include:

• Real-time text chat
• Instant file and photo sharing
• PC-to-PC voice calls
• See your friends in real-time with your webcam

You can also make your Messenger experience fun with games, emoticons, plug-ins, avatars, IMVironments and much more!

Happy chatting,
Kate – Yahoo!7 Mail & Messenger Team