Yahoo Instant Messenger for Vista - The All New Release for Windows Vista Only

Since the release of Windows Vista last year in January, there had been rumors of a Vista only Yahoo Instant Messenger. Anticipated release dates were set, came and went, and finally a few months ago Yahoo Instant Messenger for Vista came out. Here is my small review of the new and anticipated client from Yahoo.

The first release, which is currently in beta and still is, was pretty much bare bones compared to the regular Yahoo Messenger. You were able to do basic options to your messenger client, such as change the background, resize contact avatars and names, and edit your avatar or display picture. While the graphics on the client were outstanding and matched Vista, there were still features missing from the basic Messenger client.

There was no integration to be able to check your email, play Yahoo Games, Voice Chat, no audibles and if you were chatting with someone else using the basic client, you were limited on what you could see and do with the person. Many of us voiced our concerns to Yahoo about the missing features and just a few weeks ago, Yahoo released another Beta Version of their Yahoo Messenger for Vista client. The upgrades made this one of the best yet. Let me explain why.

The first release beta sign in was just a basic black screen using the Windows Vista aero interface with nothing fancy but the Yahoo Messenger logo appearing on it. The typical "save my password," "sign in as invisible," and "sign in automatically" were there, but nothing fancy. With this new release, now the logo extends from the top of the screen at login, with two different colors--a purple hue at the top with a typical gray at the bottom for sign in. When you go to click on sign in, you are now extended with flowing graphics moving on your screen instead of a little turning circle, which is common for Vista. They also give you the status of your sign in until the client pops up letting you know all went right.

One of the neatest things that I like about Yahoo Instant Messenger for Vista is the emoticons. When you put an emoticon into the im window, a little animation is played very much like the audibles. While they don't play a sound, they do play a pop up animation of a smiling face, laughing face, crying face, etc. They aren't just put into the client, it pops up and then moves itself into the IM client.

Another great addition, which was not added on the first release, was the ability to see how many email messages you have, nor was there the little mail icon that sits in your tray to let you know you still have messages. Now you get a small pop-up that is the same color as the sign in screen letting you know when you receive new emails and how many you have in your inbox.

Although the release of this client isn't much different from the regular Yahoo Instant Messenger it still has more features then the first beta release. Now you have the ability choose colors and a texture as your background (currently the only texture is grass), voice has been added and you have the option when you open an im window to choose to do text or voice (also make PC to Phone calls), which makes it very visible for those who can't usually find the voice chat button.

Want to send a message to a friend? No problem, you now have an integrated keypad which enables you to send an SMS message to a friend as long as you know their cell phone number. No more tons of im windows opened up if you are chatting with more then one person, they are all tied together with the list of friends at the bottom. If you want to chat with an open im, you click on the name of the friend and it automatically takes you to them.

While there is still lots of work to be done for the Yahoo Instant Messenger for Vista, Yahoo has come a long way from the original beta release. There currently isn't an ETA of when the final product will be released but if you have Vista, I highly recommend you try out the beta version which can be found on their website at yahoo.com. Yes, the beta version may have some bugs, but if you are like me, it's well worth in the end.