Yahoo! Friend

There are numerous instant messaging applications, each with its benefits and highlights, and Yahoo! Messenger is one of the popular ones. Even though it gets new functions and features with every update, users can also rely on third-party apps to customize it as they see fit. For example, Yahoo! Friend enhances the list of supported emoticons to provide leveraged user experience.

This software solution integrates within Yahoo! Messenger by adding new menus presenting the entire range of smileys that can be integrated when chatting with friends. Needless to say, the typical Yahoo emoticons are still available, so it is possible to use both a ‘special’ smiley and a regular one within the same message.

Some of the included emoticons are in fact series of animated images meant to help users be more convincing in expressing their feelings, be they joy, love, sadness, grief, anger or party mood. There are also some emoticons that are ASCII creations meant to impress one’s chat buddy with the sender’s artistic abilities.

Yahoo! Friend not only offers numerous additional emoticons, but it can also function like an answering machine: it can be set to automatically send replies notifying those who want to start a conversation that the user is either not available, or is not at their desk but comes back shortly. This message can be composed by each user, meaning that it can be used both at work (with the proper formal approach) and at home (where jokes are more than welcome).

The only downside of this application is that it automatically send the selected emoticon to the other party, without offering the possibility of adding some text or modifying the smiley. Also, this can generate a real mishap when the wrong button is pressed and the wrong smiley gets sent to the wrong person.

Yahoo! Friend can help anyone make an impression when chatting, by showing off with their skills of creating smileys or generating ASCII art on the go.