MSN and Yahoo Messenger Integration
July 13th, 2006
Integration between Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger with Voice has been enabled. You have to sign up to this beta program from Microsoft if you use Windows Live and another beta program if you use Yahoo! You’ll need the latest version of either WLM or Yahoo! Messenger to get integration and you’ll have to restart the Messenger after signing up.
I decided to talk to myself from MSN to Yahoo so I signed up for both programmes, updated my IM programs and agreed to multiple license agreements.
This was a bit confusing - Yahoo tried to contact MySpace during installation. Why?
Adding a contact
I added my Yahoo! account from Windows Live Messenger in much the same way you’d normally add an account - entering yahooid@yahoo.com as the e-mail address. You then get the standard dialogs on Yahoo! asking you to confirm:
The great thing is that Yahoo! picks up my nickname and personal status on Windows Live Messenger. However, Windows Live didn’t pick up my Yahoo! nickname. Both Messengers picked up things such as Busy/Away status.
A Conversation
Here’s an obligatory screenshot of a me talking to myself:
You’ll notice many features are disabled. When you click on Emoticons for example, you’ll only get a set of 25 standard MSN emoticons - no custom ones or complex ones. And when you recieve the message on Yahoo, you’ll see the Yahoo! equivalent emoticon rather than the MSN one.