By Michael Albers, VP of Communication Products at Oath
A while back we announced that we had completely modernized the technology that powered Yahoo Messenger. We made significant upgrades to key areas like photo sharing, made the service faster and more secure.
With the new platform, we were also able to build new types of messaging products and integrations. For example, our recently announced group messaging product, Yahoo Squirrel, aimed at improving the productivity of messaging, is based on this platform. Note: Yahoo Squirrel is invite-only still, but we will be opening it up to everyone shortly.
While there are many big messaging services today, just as in many things, the next phase of disruption in messaging is right around the corner. That is where we as engineers, product managers and designers have shifted our focus.
So as we continue to build and innovate products on our new messaging platform, we are announcing today that we will retire Yahoo Messenger, effective July 17, 2018.
Yahoo Messenger has had an amazing run. Over its twenty years, Yahoo Messenger introduced hundreds of millions of people to the joys of just the right emoticon for the moment (aka emojis). Yahoo Messenger changed the lives of millions, and thousands of people have sent us letters and photos over the years to share their stories of meeting a spouse over the service, keeping in touch with kids while serving overseas in the military, or introducing grandparents to new members of the family from across the globe.
We are thankful to the hundreds of millions who have used Messenger over the years as well as the thousands who have worked on it inside Yahoo for more than two decades.
By Austin Shoemaker, Senior Director, Product Management
Today we’re announcing three new features designed to give you an even better Yahoo Messenger experience. This comes on the heels of our new read receipt and typing indicator features, which make it easy to see who’s caught up on the conversation.
Touch ID
Want to keep your Yahoo Messenger conversations a bit more secure? We’ve added the ability in your app settings to set up Touch ID in your mobile app so you’re the only one who will be able to access the app. Any time you want to open Yahoo Messenger, just unlock with your fingerprint and chat away.
@Mentions
We know it can be difficult to get the attention of one person in a noisy group chat with multiple side conversations. With this new feature, the person you’re trying to reach will receive a special notification when you @mention them. Now, they’ll never accidentally miss your message again, even if they’ve muted the conversation. This feature is available on Android and iOS, and is coming to desktop and web soon!
Link Previews
When you share a link in Yahoo Messenger, we’ll now conveniently display a preview so everyone in the conversation gets a snapshot of the content without having to open the link. We’re also making it easier for you to paste recently copied links into your Yahoo Messenger conversations. Once you copy a link from another app or website, we’ll prompt you to add it to a conversation with one tap as soon as you open the app.
The Yahoo Messenger team is always looking to create new features to enhance your messaging experience, and we look forward to hearing what you think about today’s update. Update or download the Yahoo Messenger app for iOS and Android today to enjoy these new features!
By Austin Shoemaker, Senior Director, Product Management
Sometimes
it can get a little frustrating when you’re messaging friends or
colleagues and you’re not sure who’s checking their phone or reading
your messages. Today, we’re bringing you several updates to Yahoo
Messenger that make messaging an even better experience, plus a new way
to express yourself with emojis.
Read Receipts
We’ve
all been there – we’ve sent a message to a friend or family member,
only to be left wondering if they ever opened it or bothered to read it.
With our latest update, Yahoo Messenger will show you read receipts for
group and one-on-one chats, across mobile, desktop and web, so you’re
never left guessing if it reached your recipient’s eyes again.
Typing Indicators
With our typing indicator (…), you’ll now be able to see when the person you’re chatting with starts typing.
Big Emojis
When
you’re trying to get an important message across, sometimes a regular
emoji just isn’t enough. Now your hearts, champagne bottles, and
clapping hands will show up bigger than ever in your chat window on
mobile for that extra oomph.
You’ll start seeing these features in every conversation starting today! Make sure you update Yahoo Messenger in the App Store and on Google Play, as well as web and desktop. Update or refresh Yahoo Messenger to see these updates come to life.
Whether you want to show your friends the beautiful scenery while you’re on vacation or send baby videos to grandma and grandpa, Yahoo Messenger has you covered! Launching today, video in Messenger makes it even easier to show rather than tell when you want to share experiences with the people you care about. Now available on both the iOS and Android app globally, you can send videos in one-on-one and group conversations!
Wondering how it’s done? It’s just like sending photos. When composing a message, tap on the gallery picker to choose a video from your device’s gallery. Note that you’ll need to trim videos to a minute or less before sharing them in Messenger.
Update your app or download the Yahoo Messenger app for iOS and Android today to enjoy this new feature!
Following the launch of the new Yahoo Messenger, we are excited to bring this modern messaging platform and its beloved features into the redesigned Yahoo Fantasy app. Yahoo Fantasy Messenger gives you a fast, easy, and fun way to stay connected to your league-mates.
Now you can start conversations with your entire league or chat 1-1 with other team managers. Share photos and GIFs to spice up your conversations, and ‘like’ your friends’ responses to let them know you agree with their smack talk. Celebrated your team’s win too soon? With Yahoo Fantasy Messenger you can even unsend a message to save yourself any embarrassment.
Whether you’re trash talking, offering advice, or sending congratulations, we hope you enjoy staying connected to your Fantasy League! Update your app today, or restart if you’ve already upgraded, to start using the new Fantasy Messenger. This feature will be rolling out throughout the day, so make sure to check back. And if you’re not already playing, join or create a league today on iOS or Android.
By Austin Shoemaker, Senior Director, Product Management
Since we launched the new Yahoo Messenger at the end of last year, you’ve enjoyed an energized messaging experience built around groups. Our new platform provides you with a fast and easy way to send (and unsend) not only messages, but also photos and animated GIFs. Today, we’re delighted to announce that you can enjoy all of these features you’ve grown to know and love in our brand-new Yahoo Messenger desktop app for Windows and Mac.
Want to share photos from your latest vacation or simply spice up a message? Save precious time with our drag and drop feature to share multiple photos at once. Then, spread the love by “liking” any posts or images that stand out to you. If you’d rather reply with a GIF, you can easily search and send GIFs to your heart’s content. Pro tip: play GIF roulette and type /gif + any search term.
With Messenger’s desktop notifications, you can multitask at your computer without having to worry about missing an important message from family, friends, or coworkers again.
We are also introducing the unsend button – one of our most beloved Messenger features now on desktop. Sent that message too soon or caught a last-minute typo? Now you can take back a message, photo or GIF (yes, even after you’ve pressed send)! You can find out more about this exciting feature here.
The Yahoo Messenger desktop app is available for download today on Windows and Mac! Friendly reminder: If you’re using the old version of the Yahoo Messenger desktop app, don’t forget to update it by August 5 as the legacy Yahoo Messenger app will no longer function as we move forward! And if you have any questions while you’re transitioning to our new platform, simply head over to our help page.
By Austin Shoemaker, Senior Director, Product Management
Since we launched the new Yahoo Messenger back in December, people have been using it to send – and unsend! – any photo, message or animated GIF quickly and easily.
Here by popular demand, Messenger syncs and matches your mobile contacts instantly, so you can find and chat with your friends even faster. Make sure you have enabled access to contacts in the Messenger app for the best experience!
And, for the first time, Messenger now supports non-English languages, including Chinese, French, German, Indonesian, Spanish, and more. Update your iPhone or Android app in the App Store or Play Store today, and keep an eye out for more coming soon!
By Jeff Bonforte,
SVP of Product & Engineering for Communication Products
We’re
unveiling the next generation of the venerable Yahoo Messenger, which offers a vibrant new messaging
experience, built from the ground up. The powerful new platform integrates the
best of the Flickr, Tumblr and Xobni platforms – built to serve you, for years
to come.
The new
Yahoo Messenger was created with group messaging in mind from the start. We’ve
made sharing, “unsending” and “liking” messages, photos and animated GIFs easy
and insanely fast – unlike anything you’ve experienced before.
The new Yahoo Messenger is available globally today on iOS, Android,
on the Web and in Yahoo Mail on the desktop. It has
a few superpowers that we think you’ll love once you try them. Let’s jump into
the details.
Photos, Photos, Photos
Drawing
from Flickr’s expertise, the new Yahoo Messenger really takes the beauty of
sharing photos to a whole new level. You can literally send hundreds of photos
at a time and they appear to everyone in the conversation almost instantly.
Not only
is the quality of the photos amazing when viewing on Yahoo Messenger, but you
can download the original in full quality. And you don’t need to worry about
limited photo storage, because the app loads images just as (actually, just
before) you need them. It’s like magic.
Love It or Unsend It
Today’s
messaging services are either ephemeral or permanent. The new Yahoo Messenger
is both. You can “unsend” any message, photo or GIF, and it will vanish
instantly from the conversation (not only from your view but everyone else’s
too). Poof!
Of
course, at the other side of the spectrum is love. Show some love with a “like”
on any comment, photo or GIF. Unsend and “like” are not only good for 1:1
conversations, but they are also invaluable for groups. For example, at Yahoo,
when we’re deciding where to meet for lunch, people throw out options on Yahoo
Messenger and the group votes on their favorite using “like.”
GIFs Are The New Emoji
Before
emojis there was that awkward moment in messaging where you were unsure what
the other person really meant. Then came emojis, which helped you to express
yourself. But why limit your reaction to an emoji? Everyone loves a GIF!
Now you
can search and find the perfect GIF in the new Yahoo Messenger app. Get instant
access to a virtually unlimited and ever-growing library of GIFs pulled from
the Tumblr community, where tomorrow’s most popular GIFs are born each day.
Smart Contacts
Like
Yahoo Mail, the new Yahoo Messenger has a brilliant smart contacts system
behind the scene, powered by Xobni’s industry-defining platform. This is
critical, because even more than email, messaging is all about the “who” in
your life.
For
example, our smart contacts system doesn’t just understand who you know, it
also understands the relationship between your contacts, so adding people to
the group is really fast and simple. Also, anyone in a group can add another
participant, change the name of the group or even change the group photo.
Really Fast…Seriously
Speed
with communications is critical and the new Yahoo Messenger sets the bar in
speed. In an area like photo sharing, it is almost inconceivably fast. Syncing
conversations between Yahoo Messenger on the Web, in Yahoo Mail and your
smartphone happens almost in real-time.
And if
you’re offline or have low connectivity (say when you’re flying or in a remote
area), you can continue to use the app and send messages or photos. When you’re
connected, Yahoo Messenger automatically sends them through without you having
to resend or refresh.
And More To Come
Today’s
launch is just the beginning. We’re going to continue to work hard to build the
best messaging product that you won’t be able to live without!
Give it a
try and let us know what you think. Still using our old Yahoo Messenger? Read more here.
