Yahoo Messenger Update Brings Bigger Emoticons, Games, Vista Improvements

Although it hasn't rolled out the final version of Yahoo Messenger 9, the Sunnyvale-based company Yahoo has debuted what seems to be the most important updates to the ninth version of Yahoo Messenger. Starting with entertainment features and ending with Vista compatibility, the new Yahoo Messenger 9 Beta is capable of providing almost a fully changed chatting experience. But let's see the most important updates included in the latest version.

The first thing you'll notice after installing and running Yahoo Messenger 9 Beta is the different contact list. The status message has been split into two parts: one that allows you to control your availability (including here available, busy, stepped out and others) and another one which lets you attach a status message. This could prove to be a very useful addition, especially thanks to the fact that it allows you to change the status with a single mouse click.

Moreover, under the status message, there's a new button which lets you toggle between compact and detailed contact list, two features which could be only controlled from the Yahoo Messenger menus.

Opening a conversation window will surely make you notice the "Activities" button which now lets you play games with your friends. Then, in case you minimize the window and someone sends you a message, there's a brand new notification window appearing in the right corner of your screen, just above the Windows System Tray. And if you want to send an emoticon, Yahoo has prepared a surprise for you: bigger emoticons are now available, just like the ones in Yahoo Web Messenger.

Besides all these features, Sarah Bacon, Yahoo Messenger Product Manager, said that YM9 also comes with better Windows Vista functionality, which lets Vista users access voice chat in rooms and conferences. "We added a fix to this latest version of Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 Beta that allows Windows Vista users on 9.0 to use voice in chat rooms (and conferences). We also changed the chat room verification process. You can now enter the Captcha code right in the chat room window instead of having to go off to another page."

As usual, you can download the latest release of YM9, as well as the stable 8 version of Yahoo Messenger, straight from Softpedia.