Yahoo! Messenger release history

The following is a history of all versions of Yahoo! Messenger on all platforms by Yahoo!, Inc.

Windows

There are many versions between those listed here and prior to last version listed here. These are "major releases". See one of several sites listed in external links to find other, older versions of the product.

Oldest version for which customer care support is available: 8.0 (as of April 2, 2007)

Oldest version that can log in (has not reached end of life): 8.0 (as of September 30, 2009)

Version	Release date	Notes
1.0	March 9, 1998	The first public version, released with the name "Yahoo! Pager". It included basic messaging support, a buddy list with status message support, the ability to block other users, alerts when a buddies came online, and notifications when a new Yahoo! Mail message arrived.
3.0	August 17, 2000
3.5
4.0
4.1
5.0	November 2001
5.5	August 15, 2002
5.6
6.0	August 2004	Support for Windows 95 and Windows NT dropped.
6.1
7.0.0.426	August 8, 2005	Renamed to "Yahoo! Messenger with Voice" Drag-and-drop photo sharing Drag-and-drop file sharing PC-to-PC calling Voicemail Ringtones Yahoo! 360° integration Pop-up Contact Cards Spam Reporting New tabs New emoticons Archive updates LiveWords (Beta)
7.0.0.437	August 30, 2005
7.5	March 21, 2006	Added 'always-on' SWF advertisements
8.0.0.505	June 20, 2006	Plugins possible
8.0.0.508	July 13, 2006	Interoperability between Yahoo! and Windows Live Messenger contacts
8.0.0.701	August 10, 2006	The release date signifies the release of a beta version. This is not clearly documented on the Yahoo site.
8.0.0.716	September 15, 2006
8.1.0.195	October 24, 2006	Renamed to "Yahoo! Messenger" Ability to check for updates from the help menu
8.1.0.209	December 4, 2006	Patched an ActiveX Control Buffer Overflow
8.1.0.239	January 19, 2007	Improvements in voice quality and sign-in, fixes for minor bugs with Windows Vista
8.1.0.244	March 14, 2007
8.1.0.249	March 28, 2007	Patches a security flaw
8.1.0.401	June 8, 2007	Fixes a vulnerability with the Webcam ActiveX control
8.1.0.402	June 15, 2007	Fixes a buffer overflow in an ActiveX control
8.1.0.413	July 17, 2007
8.1.0.416	August 22, 2007	Changes to voice library for better Vista support. (Users can get voice in Windows Vista without using a proxy app anymore, provided they still install codec themselves) Fix to two Cam exploits
8.1.0.419	August 29, 2007	Two more security patches
8.1.0.421	September 6, 2007
9.0.0.797 Beta	October 29, 2007	New beta release of Yahoo! Messenger. It provides an improved user interface. Brand new skins and emoticons Flickr integration in the photo sharing feature New in-line media player New features for voice calls Unicode support for better international messaging.
9.0.0.907 Beta	November 7, 2007	Fixed issues with Windows Vista installation problem Message formatting in the IM window Compact list view enabled
9.0.0.922 Beta	December 17, 2007
9.0.0.1389 Beta	May 27, 2008	Bigger emoticons Games are back! Status message improvements New contact list format button Import Contacts - new & improved Voice in chat rooms for Vista users & faster Captcha process Yahoo! Updates
9.0.0.1912	September 19, 2008	Pingbox New skins Return of the (original) emoticons Ignore list enhancements Inline video & picture viewer New emoticons inspired by our users Import Contacts wizard Yahoo! Updates Call forwarding & new voicemail delivery Yahoo! Games are back Changes to the look and feel
9.0.0.2018	October 16, 2008
9.0.0.2034	November 6, 2008	Implements several bug fixes that reduces the number of crashes that occur on Windows Vista.
9.0.0.2112	January 8, 2009	Various bug fixes to address sign-in issues that some users were experiencing. Another fix for a Windows Vista crash that occurred due to a conflict between 9.0 and IOLO antivirus software. A new location for the typing notification message. The typing notification now appears inline with the conversation. Added text ads in the status bar of individual IM windows where the typing notification used to be. A new version of the offline message window.
9.0.0.2123	January 24, 2009	Left aligned voice user's ID in Yahoo! Chat and conferences. Fixed fading issue with voice user ID in Yahoo! Chat and conferences.
9.0.0.2128	February 4, 2009	Fix for the sign-in issues that have been affecting some users. If you were seeing an error code “81003005” when trying to sign in
9.0.0.2133	February 18, 2009	Test build for users still experiencing the sign-in issue which gives you error code “81003005” when trying to sign in.
9.0.0.2136	February 20, 2009	Includes fixes that should help those that were having problems installing 9.0. Alleviates problems that may have been caused by software conflicts with anti-virus programs or add-ons like Speedbit Video Accelerator.
9.0.0.2152	March 18, 2009
9.0.0.2160	May 13, 2009
9.0.0.2161	May 22, 2009	Test build issued by Yahoo![citation needed] The option to disable the IMVironments feature has been removed from preferences. This change has not been documented on Yahoo's website.
9.0.0.2162	May 26, 2009
10.0.0.331 Pre-Alpha		This build was leaked from Yahoo in June 2009.
10.0.0.525 Beta	August 24, 2009	High-quality video calls New “Y! Updates” view of your contact list All-new Yahoo! Insider Change your language easily New ways to sort your contacts New icons in the IM window
10.0.0.542 Beta	September 29, 2009	Improvements in the webcam detection logic Explanation for grayed-out video call button Smoother handling of unanswered calls Better explanation for downgraded video calls Y! Updates star-like notifier no longer appears when user has disabled all update notifications
10.0.0.1102	November 12, 2009	Incorporates many bug fixes Improved the overall stability of the product High-quality video calls New “Y! Updates” view of your contact list Change your language easily

Mac

Version	Release date	Notes
2.5.3	September 24, 2003	Chat Webcam Conference chat
3.0 beta 1 (build 17006)	June 28, 2006	New UI Display Images Avatars Support Stealth Settings Interoperability between Yahoo! and Windows Live Messenger contacts YMSG14
Prior Releases	Undocumented
3.0 beta 1 revision 2 (build 18274)	July 13, 2006	Auto Reconnect YMSG14 related bug fixes.
3.0 beta 2 (build 65474)	September 6, 2007	Tabbed IM windows Chat rooms Improved stability for webcam and file transfer More emoticons Message archiving YMSG15 No voice calling Fixed scrolling up issue when Safari 3/Webkit 522+ is installed.
3.0 beta 2 revision 2 (build 75170)	October 25, 2007	Improved stability and compatibility with Mac OS X Version 10.5 (Leopard) Some small interface improvements, including a new Show/Hide Display Images button in the IM and chat room windows Improved chat room layout, with the list of chatters in a left hand, scrollable panel with age/sex/location details available on hover (if the user is sharing his/her profile) Contextual (right click) menu's added to chatroom adding support for finally viewing a persons cam who isn't on contact list who's in the room.
3.0 beta 2 revision 3 (build 78326)	November 21, 2007	Improved stability and compatibility with Mac OS X Version 10.5 (Leopard) Crash Reporter now works under Leopard. Improvements to the sign in process when behind a firewall. Couple of crash bugs fixed.
3.0 beta 3 (build 98855)	March 25, 2008
3.0 beta 3 (build 126432)	August 28, 2008
3.0 Beta 4 (build 156957)	February 10, 2009	File transfer, Display images, voice, chat rooms, stealth settings webcam. Added clearer messaging when receiving anonymous messages from your Pingbox Added a preference to separately enable/disable archiving for chat room conversations. When you report an IM as spam, it also adds the sender to your ignore list Cancel automatic sign in when you’re launching Yahoo! Messenger for Mac Various performance and memory bug fixes Added a new message style called “Kobi lite”.
3.0 Beta 5 (build 191946)	September 3, 2009	New features and many bug fixes to help enhance overall stability and performance Yahoo! Insider is now available “Report a Problem” feature Other changes were made to ensure compatibility with Apple’s latest version of OS X, Snow Leopard.
3.0 Beta 6 (build 192773)	September 29, 2009	Fix for a sign-in issue

Other versions

Unix/Linux

The last public version of Yahoo! Messenger for Unix was released in September 2003, while an unofficial beta (v1.0.6) from a Yahoo! employee was released around the same time.

Yahoo! Messenger for Vista

It was been designed to exploit the new design elements of Vista's Windows Presentation Foundation and entitled a whole new user interface and features. It lacked some basic functions such as webcam support and Chat, and has since been discontinued.

Yahoo Web Messenger and Yahoo! Mail integration

Beginning in 2006, Yahoo made known its intention to provide a web interface for Yahoo! Messenger, culminating in the Gmail-like web archival and indexing of chat conversations through Yahoo! Mail. However, while Yahoo! Mail integrated much of the rudimentary features of Messenger beginning in 2007, Yahoo! did not succeed in integrating archival of chat conversations into Mail. Instead, a separate Adobe Flex-based web messenger was released in 2007 with archival of conversations which take place inside the web messenger itself. No option of syncing conversation archives between the desktop client and the web versions exist as of 2009.