A look at the latest Yahoo Messenger for Mac (Version 3.0 Beta 1)
When I first switched to macs, I quickly realized that the MSN and Yahoo IM clients were substandard on the mac platform and paled in comparison to their PC cousins. Their interfaces were bad and the apps lacked solid features. MSN gave up on its mac messenger project long back and Yahoo delayed a new release for years. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why a large chunk of the mac community subsequently got bitten by the Adium bug.
That’s why I was curious (more than anything else) to check out the new release of Y! IM and see what exactly they worked on for so long. I downloaded the latest release of Yahoo Messenger for the Mac from here. It’s Version 3.0 Beta 1 (that means more betas to come……. yipppeee)
Here are the main ‘features’ which Yahoo are touting on the download page…….
- New look and feel for OSX:
Great. So now the IM client actually ‘looks and feels’ like a mac OSX version. Although there is a lot of the ichat, itunes kinda feeling,, the interface could still do with a lot of improvement. Also, there is no way to customize the skin or theme. You’re stuck with what they’ve dished out. p.s… Am I the only one who thinks the PC messenger looks cooler? It’s not very often a mac user is stuck with an inferior interface!
- Support for Avatars, display images and sounds:
Finally the mac user can view avatars of his buddies and set display images. It’s a pity this feature is 2 years late.
- Coming soon……. IM with friends who use windows live (MSN) Messenger:
I can hardly wait for this one! Pleeeeease release the next beta soooon!
- Stealth settings:
Now you can selectively hide your visible status from buddies. Again….. long overdue and nothing new.
- “New IM” indicator in the OSX dock:
Thats a feature????? How else will a user know when there’s a new message with multiple finder and app windows open??
- File Transfer:
I tried transferring some PDFs to another contact on Y! IM. Didn’t work. The contact didn’t even get a notification of an incoming file or anything. What gives?
- Webcam Support:
Finally. One good feature worth the wait. Pity I don’t have iSight to test it out 
Overall, this effort by Yahoo is totally lackluster. It’s time they get serious about the mac community and provide some real powerhouse features (which are already available on the PC client) like Launch cast support, VOIP calls, Audibles, Instant Photo sharing and IMVironments. Is it asking for too much?? What say?
As of now, I would like to end this review with one word….. ADIUM 
June 29, 2006 at 4:09 pm
Regarding the file transfer issue – how big was the PDF? I’m not sure if it’s still the case, but last time I looked, YIM has ridiculously strict limits on file transfers (3MB?). If you send a file bigger than that, it will often appear to “send” (and the data goes somewhere…) but the person on the other end won’t even see a request, much less actually get the file. Perhaps that’s what happened here?
June 29, 2006 at 11:30 pm
June 30, 2006 at 4:19 am
Sorry to say, but while the webcam supports iSight, all it does is broadcast a video feed (not even audio it appears…), which the last version did as well and is a pretty useless function. Who wants to let someone watch them, without talking or seeing the other party/ies. Creepy…
I’m glad they upgraded the YIM client for Mac, but there’s nothing really exciting about it. Given the wait, you’d think they would have time for at least feature parity. iChat still kicks it’s butt.
September 2, 2006 at 11:58 am
Yeah it’s just dandy-fab looking… so where are the **basic features** e.g. chat room access??? hmmm???
October 1, 2006 at 3:32 am
hi downloaded ym for mac os..how do i do stealth settings? im really not an expert on computers so please bare with my explanations: i highlighted the name of the person i want to appear online only..normaly in other laptop u just press right click..however with macbook, no right click at all… please help me thank you
October 30, 2006 at 9:56 pm
Hi,
I sent the following to yahoo messenger customer support and would be interested to know if others have had this problem with my webcam video blacking out on the other chat users computer.:
I am running Mac OS X 10.4.8 on a 20″ G5 iMac. I have a fairly slow internet connection usually connecting at 33,600kbps.
Yahoo Messenger version 2.5.3 runs fine with a webcam but with the new Version 3.0 beta 1 (build 18274), the OTHER user in a chat/vieo chat session suffers from my webcam blacking out after a short time after being connected. This happens with all users and not just one. The OTHER users webcam displays and does not crash when viewed on my iMac. This bug is also the case using both an iSight webcam and a USB webcam (logitech).
I would be gratreful if you fix this bug and if you can send me a fix, I would appreciate it.
Thanks,
Hugh Rance
November 22, 2006 at 6:35 pm
I have a macbook pro with built in iSight and I have been using yahoo messenger V3 Beta. The cam seems to work but when others view it, it works for awhile (maybe 5 or 10 minutes) then it locks up their machines. Its happened whenever I the cam is on and someone is viewing. Any ideas as to what is going on. I think the viewers have all been PC users.
December 2, 2006 at 1:33 pm
While i was on my quest to find a decent IM on Mac. I actually find YM. All i want is MSN and Nudge. And so far only aMSN manage to do it ( Poor performance and bad interface ) . Adium and even official MSN on Mac doesn’t support it.
And you know what. YM actually support it! Buzz is what they called. ( I now found out YM actually have BUZZ first before MSN had Nudge ) And for even M$ gave Lame excuses for not have nudge on Mac ( That is unless they hold true to their words which mean next MSN on Mac will have 90% of PC MSN aka WLM ’s features )
So … Windows Live messenger… Why dont M$ call their next version Mac Live Messenger
August 24, 2007 at 4:44 am
Hey, My friend has a Mac computer, And i dont. For some reason my avatar does not show up on her computer. Since i do not have a mac, i cant run them through any process on how to show a friends avatar. Could anyone help out a bit?
September 29, 2007 at 5:41 pm
I can not hear or talk with my Mac even though i have Yahoo messenger for Mac 3.0 Beta 2. Please advice.
October 23, 2007 at 7:42 am
its better that they add call features in YM for MAC users
November 3, 2007 at 5:43 am
? – look, they say you are welcome at the site. I went there and applied for a credit card. What happened you think? The form didn’t come out! I wonder who designs such sites! Hi 2 all
get a credit card with no credit rating
mc216d
January 23, 2008 at 4:40 pm
WHY THIS DOESN’T HAVE A BUZZ ICON????? PLEASE REPLY ME.. URGENT! THANKS
February 12, 2008 at 9:25 pm
I can not add my friend otavioserpa@Yahoo.com.br in my Yahoo Messenger.
Can you help me? I tried several times and the message is: unknown failure
Why is this happening?
I wait for your help.
Thank you.
March 17, 2008 at 7:58 pm
i feel problem while my friend accept my viewwebcam invitation but it show to our friend that my cam is not available but it still looking broadcasted to my system .. what is wrong here ..
plz
March 26, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Hi, Ive recetly got myself a Mac and have downloaded the messenger Version 3.0 beta 2 (build 78326) for my mac. however, upon installing it and signing in i repeatedly get this message that “The Application could not connect to the Messenger Servers. The Servers may be busy, Please try again”. Ive done this a couple of times now and im unsuccessful yet. I removed yahoo from my system and reinstalled it couple of times and still the same result when logging in.
Im running it on Mac OS X Version 10.5.2. Anyone can please assist me? Its been 4 days since im on this and no progress.
Further to my above on 23rd March, when tried again i still got the same error message “Application counld not connect….. etc” and Yahoo Msgr prompted me that a new version of Yahoo Mesenger is available now and if that I would like to Innsall it by replacing the old version. Now version 3 (beta 3) (build 98855) is Installed on my mac, but the progress on it remains the same. Cannot log in….
Can someone please help…
Thanks,
Harsha
March 27, 2008 at 4:01 am
how can i rename a yahoo id on my contac list?
April 19, 2008 at 2:53 am
I have a 13′ macbook. i downloaded the Yahoo! Messenger Version 3.0 Beta 3 weeks ago. Everything was fine until last week. Audio is good but the webcam started having problems. I click on the webcam at the bottom of the messenger. I can see myself but my PC-user friends cannot view me. And I cannot view their webcam as well. “Connection disconnected”… Oh, I have a built-in iSight. Can someone please help me with this?!
Thanks,
iane
April 23, 2008 at 1:44 pm
From: Chicago, IL
Registered: Nov 13, 2007
Built-In iSight Cam will not work with Yahoo Messenger nor with AIM/I-Chat
Posted: Nov 13, 2007 8:10 PM
Hi,
New Mac user… made the switch about 4-5 months ago. I am very adept on the PC (IT guy) but still learning my way around the Mac and MacOS.
The problem I am currently having is that I can’t seem to get the Webcam feature working with Yahoo Messenger. Previewing it through iChat, it works fine… I can see myself etc. When I broadcast it with Yahoo Messenger, all I get is a black screen, which is all the other person can see as well. If I try to take a picture with it IN YAHOO, same black screen… but photobooth works fine.
May 25, 2008 at 2:13 pm
hi anyone knows the solution to this problem? i also encounter this and it really sucks..
“i repeatedly get this message that “The Application could not connect to the Messenger Servers. The Servers may be busy, Please try again”. Ive done this a couple of times now and im unsuccessful yet. I removed yahoo from my system and reinstalled it couple of times and still the same result when logging in.”
June 9, 2008 at 12:03 pm
I’ve also experienced the Web cam issue that was stated before: I can view my friends’ Web cams, and can send them an invitation to view mine (Logitech), but when they accept my invitation, they don’t see anything. One of them even said that the service gave her a message stating that I’ve declined the invitation.
I know that my Web cam is working because I can see the image on my computer. Help!
October 29, 2008 at 11:11 am
I have a macbook with built in iSight and I have been using yahoo messenger V3 Beta. The cam seems to work but when others view it, it works for awhile (maybe 5 or 10 minutes) then it locks up their machines. Its happened whenever I the cam is on and someone is viewing. Any ideas as to what is going on. I think the viewers have all been PC users.
September 23, 2009 at 11:58 pm
Re: ianespanes “I have a 13′ macbook. ”
I WANT ONE! Where can I buy a MacBook with a 13 foot screen!?