Yahoo Messenger to Remove Some Features Starting December 14

Yahoo Messenger lost its popularity long back after Gtalk and Skype came into existence. However, it is still used by many. Reports indicate that Yahoo Messenger will lose many of its features as part of product revamping efforts initiated by Yahoo’s new CEO, Ms Marissa Meyer.

The features that are expected to go off soon:

• Interoperability with the messenger of Windows Live


• Yahoo voice phone, through which users could make phone calls from the Yahoo messenger


• Video conferencing and group messaging capabilities


• Integration with social networking tool, Pingbox


• Public chat rooms

This report has caused shock to many Yahoo users and they are even worried on the future of this messenger application. Though many features are expected to be off from Yahoo Messenger by December 14, the Yahoo Voice phone feature is tipped to stay till January 30, 2013.

Users who have balance amount in their voice accounts will be refunded. It is not clear why Yahoo is discontinuing with this feature as it was expected to be a competitor for Skype’s calling services. It is quite evident that Yahoo is now not going to play in this space. Aggressive product streamlining is in action, it seems from Ms Meyer.

There is no official explanation on why Yahoo is shredding off these features from its Messenger application especially the interoperability with Windows Live messenger. As per the sources, though Windows buddies or friends can be seen, users won’t be able to send messages.

If you are using the Yahoo messenger on your Android devices, the removal of these features will take away its splendor. However, to the relief of users, features like capability to send international SMS to selected few countries and Facebook support will remain in the application.

Let us wait for Yahoo’s official clarification on this!