Yahoo! Mail Tutorials

Chatting With Your Contacts

What Is... Being Available to Chat Starting a Chat Receiving a Chat Message Switching Between Email and Chat Turning Chat Off

Starting a Chat

You can chat with a contact who is in your Yahoo! Contacts, who has a Yahoo! ID, and who is signed into Yahoo! Mail or Yahoo! Messenger. Your chat appears in a conversation tab in the Yahoo! Mail window. You’ll know a contact is available to chat if you see the person’s name in your online contacts list.

The online contacts list

Notes:

You can chat with several contacts at the same time, each in its own tab. It’s not possible for several people to chat together in a single conversation.

You cannot use the chat feature inside Yahoo! Mail and be logged into Yahoo! Messenger at the same time.

 

Here’s How

  1. Make sure that you are available to chat within Yahoo! Mail. (Remind me how.)

  2. Check that the people you want to chat with are in your Yahoo! Contacts and have chat ID information. (See the Getting Started With Yahoo! Contacts tutorial if you need help adding contacts.)

  3. If you don’t see your online contacts in the left pane of the Mail window, clicking the arrow next to Online, to display them.

    Click the arrow to display your online contacts.

  4. Click the name of the contact you want to chat with.

    Click the name of the contact you want to chat with.

    A conversation tab opens where you can begin your chat.

    Chat in a conversation tab.

  5. Type your message in the message input box, then press the Enter key or click the Send button.

    Type your message, then press Enter.

    Your messages and your contact’s replies appear in the conversation area.

    Your messages and your contact’s replies appear in the conversation area.

 

What’s Next

You can also start a chat in any of the following ways:

  • Click the available symbol (Available symbol) next to the Yahoo! ID on a contact’s details page.

  • Type c or select Chat from the New menu.

    Select Chat from the New menu.

    This opens a new chat message window where you can enter the Yahoo! ID of the person you want to chat with.

    Enter the Yahoo! ID for the person you want to chat with.

    If the person you want to chat with is offline, you can send an instant message that she’ll get the next time she signs in, or you can choose to send an email message instead.

    Send an email message to an offline contact.

  • While composing an email message, convert your email to a chat message or text message. Take a look at Switching Between Email and Chat and Using Text Messaging to learn more.

When you receive a chat message, it’s easy to respond.

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Words to Know

  • Contact: a person with whom you interact; someone to whom you might want to send an email, instant message, or text message.
  • Online contact: a contact with a Messenger ID who is signed in at the same time you are.
  • Yahoo! ID: the name by which a person is known to all Yahoo! networks.
  • Yahoo! Messenger: an application that lets you communicate using your voice, text, or other means with one or more people over the Internet in real time (instantly).