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June 28, 2006

Yahoo! Messenger releases Mac IM 3.0

Marshall Kirkpatrick

33 comments »

The Yahoo! IM team just released the 3.0 version of Yahoo! IM for Mac. Yahoo! Messenger for Mac was last updated in September, 2003. Its feature set is interesting, but it appears to lack two of the PC version’s most compelling qualities: VOIP and the growing library of plugins built on the recently released software development kit. It’s hard for me to imagine using any single IM client on my Mac when I can use Adium and connect with all major IM systems at once.

Here’s what it does have:

  • A new interface built in Cocoa, very OS X looking.
  • Avatars and animated emoticons, which I’m sure will appeal to a wide audience.
  • Webcam support, compatible across PCs and Macs - though I personally IM when I don’t want to communicate intimately.
  • Custom stealth settings, eg. everybody but my ex-girlfriend can see that I’m available if I don’t want to talk to her.
  • Visual notifications using the Growl system.
  • IM alerts for Yahoo! Calendar, Mail and Personals. Good idea on their part, but IM alerts for any RSS feed would be even better.

Coming soon: chat with Windows Live (MSN) users. It will be a beautiful day if even the smallest amount of forward progress towards IM compatibility appears.

I’ll be very curious to see if the VOIP and plug-ins available to PC users are included in the future features the company promises.

  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 28th, 2006 at 3:13 pm and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Comments

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  1. Nick Gonzalez

    June 28th, 2006 at 3:35 pm

    There is currently some IM interoperability now. I have been using Trillian, an IM client from Cerulean Studios that manages AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, and ICQ connections. Although all my friends are only on the AIM network, I use it for its superior metadata features (i.e managing multiple accounts, tracking histories). However, after seeing the power from some of these new IM apps, I may need to upgrade. But then again, a webcam feature would make IMing in my underwear inappropriate in most circumstances. ;)

  2. Gerald Buckley

    June 28th, 2006 at 5:43 pm

    As I read it at AppleInsider… it sounds like Leopard is going to have some VoIP built in. Should be interesting. Particularly if it’s part of the Core framework where Adium can tap into it.

  3. Tonii

    June 28th, 2006 at 7:10 pm

    Nick: I’ve read news about Yahoo IM going to officially open up to MSN Messenger by the 3rd quarter … i.e. I can use my MSN Messenger to send messages to people on the Yahoo Messenger network, and vice versa. Can anyone confirm?

    If this is true then it’s definitely one of the revolutionary first steps ever taken in the IM scene.

  4. Marshall Kirkpatrick

    June 28th, 2006 at 7:14 pm

    Tonii, perhaps some one has some inside knowledge on what “coming soon” means, but for now you can just get accounts at both, download either Trillian on a PC or AdiumX on a Mac and you’ll never know the difference.

  5. Anshul

    June 28th, 2006 at 7:19 pm

    Microsoft had actually put up windows live messenger with yahoo integration for sometime on live.com. It was taken down though. I couldnt really understand the point of doing so. Maybe just a blunder.

  6. Skeptic

    June 28th, 2006 at 9:58 pm

    Am I mistaken, or are you reporting on a tool that is actually used by people?? ;)

  7. Techielover

    June 29th, 2006 at 1:15 am

    Don’t know what the fuss is all about. Yahoo messenger on the mac always sucked. Here’s an interesting review i caught on the new release today…
    http://himac.wordpress.com/200.....en-bother/

    Frankly….. I agree!

  8. Daniel

    June 29th, 2006 at 2:12 am

    Is it just me or is this the first (first-party) IM client to offer Mac-to-PC webcam support?

  9. Tigerdyr

    June 29th, 2006 at 4:30 am

    MSN Live integration? With or without voice/video? Some insider-knowledge please? :D

  10. Stephen

    June 29th, 2006 at 5:03 am

    The old version of yahoo messenger offered webcam support also, I had no problems using my isight and connecting mac to a pc. So apart from a new interface and some other minor enhancements, they are offering nothing new at all.

  11. Eric

    June 29th, 2006 at 5:51 am

    Does the webcam support also allow for voice? Or does this just mean I can see the person I’m talking to, but I still need to type to them?

  12. CHris

    June 29th, 2006 at 6:04 am

    Is the webcam execution any better then the previous release where you felt like they where using the same technology NASA circa 1960 used to communicate with people in space? ie 1 frame a second with no audio?

  13. iain

    June 29th, 2006 at 5:30 pm

    Is Adium much better than Fire? I’ve been using Fire (source forge) for the past few months with great success on OS X … support for MSN, Yahoo, and more is great.

  14. Nick

    July 2nd, 2006 at 5:40 pm

    Any chance they’ll update the Linux client?

  15. albabe

    July 4th, 2006 at 2:24 pm

    This is a beta… Yahoo took 3 years to support Mac since the last Yahoo Msngr and will probably change this from beta to an actual “real” application in, maybe… 3 years. This app is a piece of crap.

    No Yahoo Chat Room support!!!

    Most chat-friends can’t invite you to their cam.

    My cam still won’t work on Yahoo.

    When you get a message from someone, there is no button or “pull-down” to show their Yahoo Profile (Was “Command I” in last piece-o-crap version).

    No button to refresh the chat window, so as to get all of what has been typed before (in the last version it was “Command K.”

    No button to IGNORE jerks who won’t leave you alone (You can access an ignore menu from preferences… but it doesn’t work!!!)

    Can’t SAVE anything in a chat window any more (It did in last Mac version)

  16. sabrina

    August 15th, 2006 at 8:06 pm

    hi any one wants to talk leave an im -

  17. ohgracious!

    February 14th, 2007 at 8:53 am

    i am using ym 3.0.1 beta for mac and it keeps on disconnecting by itself! its fustrating!!! help!!!

  18. dopey

    March 12th, 2007 at 4:31 pm

    ohgracious…i’m not sure if you’re on dial-up but if you’re not try changing the type of connection to DSL/Cable from preferences. that might help.

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