The development team behind Yahoo!’s popular instant messaging (IM) client showcased Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone during the CTIA wireless conference (which closed a few days ago) and announced to the world that the software would be made available for free to the general public in the near future. Well, that near future is now – the wait is over as Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone has been released. Perhaps now you can take your mind off the Skype for iPhone issues.

“It’s finally arrived – the all new Yahoo! Messenger for the iPhone application. Now you can take the best of Yahoo! Messenger with you and stay in touch with friends through your iPhone or iPod Touch, no matter where you are. The Yahoo! Messenger for the iPhone application is free and can be downloaded through the iTunes App Store. For now you need to use the direct link to download it; sometime tomorrow it should be searchable in the app store as well. Even if you don’t have an iPhone, Yahoo! Messenger is available for other types of mobile phones including the Blackberry. Visit our mobile site to find out what works with your phone,” explains Product Manager, Sarah Bacon.

Here are the main features you can expect to get with Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone:
- Instant Messaging: the main function of Yahoo! Messenger that allows you to socialize with your friends via IM.
- Share Photos, be it a photo you already have stored on your iPhone, or a photo you took just now.
- Stealth Settings: stay invisible when you do not want others to see you, select which users can see when you are available.
- Custom status message: type in whatever you want, including a web link, and set it as your online status.
- Recent conversations archive
- Special idle state: the app will automatically set your status to “Idle” when you for example click a link one of your friends sent you, link that takes you away from Yahoo! Messenger and towards Safari.

If you would like to get Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone, an iTunes download location is available here.