Old school instant messaging on iOS

This program can no longer be downloaded. You can look for alternatives in iPhone > Browser Apps > Instant Messaging

Yahoo! Messenger is an iOS chat application that allows you to send instant messages, make voice and video calls, and exchange SMS messages for free.

What can you do with Yahoo! Messenger?

Yahoo! Messenger pulls all of your Yahoo! contacts together, allowing you to send messages or call these people in a snap. SMS messaging to contacts is supported if you prefer to exchange messages in this way.

The application allows you to share photos and video in your chats, although compared to other chat apps for iOS like WhatsApp Messenger, Viber, and LINE, Yahoo! Messenger is very light on chat features. For example, there’s no location sharing, no voice messaging, and no support for group chat.

Getting around Yahoo! Messenger

desktop versionFriends list

To start chatting, you just click on a contact and tap the IM chat window to open up the on-screen keyboard. From here you can also add emoticons, URLs and photos to the messages by touching the appropriate tab. The photo option lets you add images stored on your iPhone, or capture and send one at that moment.

Yahoo! Messenger keeps a record of all your conversations, which you can view via the ‘Messages’ tab. These can be deleted at your leisure, if you don’t want anyone to see them.

Clicking the webcam button in Yahoo! Messenger will initiate a video call with a contact. Their video stream appears in the large window, and a preview of your outgoing video shows up in a small window at the bottom of the screen. Note that two-way video calling only works between iOS or Windows devices. Currently, the Mac and Android versions of Yahoo! Messenger aren’t supported for calls.

Yahoo! Messenger is pretty rough around the edges, and the app could do with a bit of TLC from the developer. Crashing is a frequent occurrence, especially with video calls, emoticons are poorly implemented, and the app uses a fiddly, ugly keyboard rather than the iOS 7 keyboard.

A long way off the pace

Although it offers a very simple, user-friendly interface for chatting, Yahoo! Messenger for iOS needs more development if it is to compete with the likes of WhatsApp or LINE.

Copy and paste text from Yahoo! Messenger to other apps Performance and stability improvements

Changes

• Copy and paste text from Yahoo! Messenger to other apps Performance and stability improvements