Yesterday, Yahoo! YHOO rolled out certain upgrades to the Yahoo Messenger service. Apart from sending photos and animated GIFs, users will now be able to “unsend” messages and photos.
In fact, the revamped messenger, available for mobile, web and on Yahoo Mail, will have 44 language options for web users. However, Alphabet’s GOOGL Android and Apple’s AAPL iOS users will be limited to English.
Integrated with other Yahoo services, like Flickr and Tumblr, the new messenger will let users send GIF messages. Also, unlimited high-resolution photos can be shared at one go. In addition, photos sent on the messenger can be “liked”, similar to Facebook FB.
There will also be a sync protocol for times when the network is not reliable (a boon for developing countries). Messages and photos shared during this time will automatically sync once connectivity is restored. In fact, per Austin Shoemaker of Yahoo Messenger, it will be one of the fastest messengers as it quickly syncs messages from the server.
In response to a question from IndianExpress.com, Shoemaker clarified that the messenger will work for Yahoo accounts only. It cannot be synced with other third-party messaging platforms like Google Hangouts or Facebook Messenger.
Nevertheless, users will be able to sync multiple Yahoo accounts.
Lastly, Yahoo’s smart contacts system (powered by Xobni) “understands” the relationships among contacts thus making it quicker and simpler to add people to message groups. However, any member of a group can add a participant (unlike WhatsApp), and change the group name or photo.
More than 15 years old, Yahoo Messenger has lost its sheen as competitors like Skype, Facebook and Snapchat entered the messaging market and Yahoo failed to keep up.
Yahoo, carrying a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), has not disclosed the current number of active messenger users.
Will this revamp enable Yahoo to get back its lost position? I doubt, considering the competition. However, one cannot really overlook the fact that Yahoo has a lot of customers- so whether it will able to get all its users onto this platform remains to be seen.
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