In a bid to make a comeback in the instant messaging space, fading Internet giant Yahoo has introduced a new Yahoo Messenger for mobile, the Web and in Yahoo Mail on the desktop.
The company says Yahoo Messenger makes sharing, unsending and liking messages, photos and animated GIFs easy and fast. Built on a new platform, it understands the relationship between contacts so adding people to group conversations is fast and simple, it adds.
The new addition comes at a time Yahoo is under pressure from some of its investors who are calling for the company to sell off its core business.
Yahoo Messenger, originally launched as Yahoo Pager in 1998, can be downloaded and used with a generic "Yahoo ID" which also allows access to other Yahoo services, such as Yahoo Mail, where users can be automatically notified when they receive new e-mail.
Lost track
However, Yahoo Messenger's popularity has been eclipsed by new instant messaging applications like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.
According to figures from research firm Statista, as at August 2015, WhatsApp was the most popular instant messaging platform that month with a total of 800 million active users. This was followed by Facebook Messenger (700 million). Yahoo Messenger does not feature in the top eight.
"We're excited to introduce the next generation of Yahoo Messenger. It has long been one of our core products but it was time to redesign the product from the ground up and reinvest in one of the most important products in our history as a company," says Jeff Bonforte, senior vice-president of communication products and engineering at Yahoo.
"The messaging space has grown dramatically, yet people ultimately want a fast and easy way to communicate with each other. The new Yahoo Messenger was designed first and foremost to meet those needs. This is just the beginning of what's to come."
Powered by Flickr's photo platform, Yahoo says the Messenger can instantly send hundreds of photos using the simple upload tool. The photos users share are displayed in a photo drawer that scrolls horizontally, so they can be viewed in the context of the conversation, without interrupting the flow of the conversation.
The company explains that in a Yahoo Messenger conversation, it's easy to search and find the perfect GIF to send. Powered by Tumblr, there is a GIF button in the message box that opens a GIF search and also displays a collection of the top trending GIFs on Tumblr.
Yahoo Messenger is available globally today in the Apple App Store and Google Play as well as on the Web. Yahoo Messenger in Yahoo Mail on the desktop is also rolling out globally starting today. The apps are English only but will be available in local languages soon.
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