The Living Dead: Yahoo Launches New Messenger App for the Desktop

[JackSparrow]

Yes, Yahoo Messenger still exists, and no, Yahoo has absolutely no intention of giving up on it. The company has just launched a new version of Yahoo Messenger, as it plans to discontinue the old one on August 5, thus forcing everyone (if anyone is still using it) to upgrade before this date.

Yahoo Messenger, which at some point was one of the most popular instant messaging solutions on the desktop, has collapsed lately, mostly because of the growth experienced by mobile messaging apps, but also because of Facebook Messenger, which provides a more convenient way for users to talk to each other.

Yahoo has experienced very difficult times lately, and it’s now very close to another takeover, but it still struggles to keep the Messenger alive, so this new version released today is considered to be a breath of fresh air for the company. Only that it isn't.

Lacking essential features

The app is rather basic and is not even close to other popular messaging solutions available these days. Not only that nobody seems to be using it nowadays - none of our 100+ contacts is online at the time of writing this article - but it also lacks essential functionality, such as seeing offline contacts.

Yahoo says that it implemented features that should come in very handy to users, including an unsend button that lets you make edits to a message, photo or GIF even if you've already sent it.

The GIF support is another cool feature that Yahoo is bragging about, and so is photo sharing, which allows you to share multiple pictures with one of your contacts with drag and drop. Desktop notifications are also provided, Yahoo announced, although we couldn’t test it since nobody was online.

“If you'd rather reply with a GIF, you can easily search and send GIFs to your heart's content. Pro tip: play GIF roulette and type /gif + any search term. With Messenger's desktop notifications, you can multitask at your computer without having to worry about missing an important message from family, friends, or coworkers again,” Yahoo says.

The new Yahoo Messenger is available right now for Windows, and users can also download the mobile version for iOS and Google Play Store on their smartphones.