I first saw an early version of
Yahoo! Messenger for Vista at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas
last January. Code-named 'Diablo' -- it looked and sounded great, and I have anxiously awaited a version that we could get our hands on at BigBlueBall. Well, the wait is finally over and from what I have seen, it looks great.
Yahoo has officially released a public preview version of Yahoo! Messenger for Vista (yes, you can download it, too -- if you're running Windows Vista).
Built from the ground up specifically for Windows Vista, this new messenger looks great and includes some nice changes, including:
- An entirely new interface that takes full advantage of Vista's graphics subsystem
- Tabbed chats, allowing you to collect your active chats in a single, tabbed window -- or drag them to their own window
- A Windows Sidebar gadget that let's you easily keep tabs on your favorite contacts
- Enhanced color themes (although I'm not so keen on the grass or the woodgrain). You can also change the theme of every chat window you open!
- Enhanced emoticons
- Scalable contacts, allowing you to adjust the size of your contact list with a slider
- Built-in spell checking
- Concurrent installation allows you to install and run Y! Messenger for Vista and your current version (Y! 8.1 or 9.0) on the same computer.
Please keep in mind that this is a
preview release (often referred to as
beta software). This means that there will be bugs, and there are features that are still missing. The current preview release does not include voice, webcam, chat rooms, text messaging to mobile phones, IMVironments, Audibles, plug-ins, photo sharing or conferencing. Most of these features are still being worked on for "future releases."
If you're running Windows Vista and would like to try it out, you can
download Yahoo! Messenger for Vista now.
Links