Free Yahoo! Messenger App For Windows 8

Yahoo! Messenger is a free Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 app that allows you to chat with your Yahoo! contacts with ease on the fly. When you install and launch the app, you can easily select the contact with whom you want to chat with in the main screen of the app, and start chatting! This Yahoo Messenger app for Windows 8 is incredibly easy to operate, and also allows you to add new contacts from within the app itself, and allows you to accept any incoming contact requests as well.

Yahoo! Messenger is available for free from the Windows App Store.

Yahoo! Messenger App Icon

Features of Yahoo! Messenger App for Windows 8…

When you install and launch Yahoo! Messenger on your Windows 8 or your Windows 8.1 device, you will be presented with an interface like the below screenshot.

Yahoo! Messenger Main Screen

As you can see above, you will be prompted to enter your Yahoo! id and password. You can also choose your status from Online, Invisible, and Busy. Clicking on the Log In button at the bottom of the above screenshot will take you to the main screen of the app where you can start chatting with your contacts.

Yahoo! Messenger Logged In

The main screen of the app shows you the tiles of your Yahoo! contacts. So here is the number 1 bug of the app – majority of the times, the app is unable to load the profile pictures of the contacts. Depending on your usage, this might be a minor or a major annoyance to you. I’m not bothered by it much and hence for me, it was a minor annoyance. You can click on the tile of any contact and as soon as you do that, you will be presented with a plethora of options via a control bar at the bottom of the screen that flies up. You can choose to begin chat, see profile of your contact, move your contact to a group, or to delete the contact altogether. From the control bar at the top, you can also choose to add a new contact, go to the chat page or manage your contact groups. You can also change your online status via the drop down menu at the top left corner of the above screen, and can appear offline by clicking on the Appear Offline button at the bottom left. Let’s see how adding a contact works.

Yahoo! Messenger Add A New Contact

Clicking on Add Contact button in the top control bar will show you the above screen where you can add the details of the contact whom you wish to add. Another nice feature of the app is that when someone tries to add you on their list, you are almost immediately notified of this (see below screenshot), and you can then choose to add them or to reject their request via the on screen options.

Yahoo! Messenger Incoming Request

Let’s see how the chatting works in this app.

Yahoo! Messenger Chat

As you can see in the above screenshot, you can chat without any issues, attach and send files, and even use emoticons. But the profile picture glitch pertains even in the chat screen, as you see a Grey box in the place where the user’s profile picture is supposed to be. You can return to the main screen of the app at any time via the back arrow button at the top left screen corner. You can also logout from the app by clicking on the exit doorway button at the top left corner of the screen, right before the text which says Buddies List.

Yahoo! Messenger Log out

Overall, the app functions great but has a minor glitch that should be fixed soon enough in a future update to the app!

Pros…

  • Smooth, clean interface.
  • Looks and feels native to Windows 8 ecosystem.
  • Tiles of contacts makes it easy to select a contact for interacting with them.
  • Supports emoticons, attaching files etc.

Cons…

  • Video chat not supported yet.
  • Profile picture bug.

The verdict…

Yahoo! Messenger for Windows 8 is a clean and polished app that allows you to easily chat and send attachments to your Yahoo! contacts, and apart from a few minor bugs, the app runs great. There are no ads, and the app loses marks because there is no support for video calling yet, and has the “not-so-subtle” profile-picture bug which I talked about above. Overall, the app works great and deserves a 3.5 out of 5.

Get Yahoo! Messenger.