Article by George Norman

On 22 Jul 2009

The instant messaging iPhone app developed by Yahoo! has been updated to version 1.2.1 to include the Push Notification service available in the iPhone OS 3.0, as well as other interesting new features. This piece of news comes after we announced yesterday that Yahoo! rolled out Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone 1.2 with Push Notification and new features as well.

There was a catch at the time – the features if YM for iPhone 1.2 had been detailed by Product Manager Sarah Bacon, but her post had shortly been pulled down. The post is back up today, with clarification on what happened. It seems that Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone 1.2 was a bit buggy and had problems handling the push notification service.


Sarah Bacon explains: “If you installed 1.2 last night or earlier today, please uninstall and install it again. The one we submitted last night had some issues with push notifications, so be sure to install this final update. Thanks!”

The new features in Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone 1.2.1

Push Notification
There are three notification methods at your disposal:

1. Badge notification - when an Yahoo! Messenger contact gets in touch with you, a badge will appear on top of the Yahoo! Messenger app icon on your home screen. The badge indicates how many new messages you have.

2. Pop-up alert - alongside the badge notification, you will also see a pop-up alert on your home screen, just like when you receive an SMS message on your iPhone. You can select to view the new IM or you can choose to close the alert. When the iPhone is asleep, the pop-up will wake it up and display the alert message.
If you would like to get Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone, a download location is available here.

3. Sound/vibration alert - when a new IM is available the device will play a sound to let you know about it. If the iPhone is on mute, the device will vibrate instead.

Sarah Bacon explained that you “can choose to use all or none of these new message alerts.” You need only tap Settings on the home screen -> Notifications -> Yahoo! Messenger -> turn on or turn off the notification method of your choice. By default, they are turned on when you install Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone.

Stay online for up to 2 weeks
There is an option in Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone 1.2.1 that allows you to remain online and visible to your YM contacts, even though you turned off the app. For up to two weeks, you will appear as online to your YM friends – your status will be updated to show that you are idle. When someone contacts you, a push notification will be sent to your iPhone.

Buzz feature with iPhone-specific enhancements.
One of the most requested features requested by Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone users was “Buzz.” This feature is now available in version 1.2.1. Sarah Bacon comments: “you’ll be happy to know you can now buzz away to your heart’s content. We also gave it a little iPhone flavor. When you want to buzz a friend, just shake your iPhone vigorously. Your friend gets buzzed on their end and you’ll also see the usual BUZZ!!! message in the conversation window.”

Search is integrated with Contacts app
When you use the Search feature in the YM for iPhone app, it will search within the Contacts app as well. Even if one of your friends is not in your Yahoo! Messenger list, that friend’s number will show up as long as it is listed in Contacts.

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



Tags: Yahoo!, Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone, Push Notification

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