Yahoo Messenger is a free chatting service that has been around for a lot of time and it is one of the strongest competitors on the market, because it manages to offer quality solutions without premium upgrades. The installation process is simple and after this step is finished, the application will pop up on the desktop, where the user will be able to insert his login information and log into his account. He can also choose to create an account using the button in the lower area of the interface and he will be redirected to a web page.

The contacts in the list can be sorted using custom-made groups and users can also hide some of these groups. The email box is updated in real time and the user will be informed by a pop-up in the lower area of the desktop about new emails or instant messages. Video chatting is also available and the user can easily start his webcam using the app in order for others to connect to it, even freely. Various preset status messages are available, although the user can write down a custom one.

A good addition of the newer Yahoo Messenger versions is the fact that skins can be changed with only a single mouse click. Other chat clients do not offer skin customization at all, while others require a restart in order for the changes to be applied, but this one changes the skin in a matter of seconds, without all of those issues. There are skins suited for everyone and more can be imported. The sounds and the visual notifications can also be customized, using different options. Yahoo Messenger now also features the possibility of logging in with the Facebook account and having the chat list imported into this application in order to chat with friends directly.