Chatting With Your Contacts

Tip: If you’re working in another window and Yahoo! Mail is open, you’ll see a flashing message at the bottom of the screen in the Windows task bar. The message reads, “So-and-so sent you a message…” where “So-and-so” is the name of the person trying to contact you. The message keeps flashing until you click the Yahoo! Mail page.

If you’re working in another browser tab while Mail is open in the same browser, you’ll see a similar message scroll across the Mail tab.

Here’s How

To see an incoming chat message:

1. Return to your Yahoo! Mail window if you aren’t already there.

2. Click the orange-tinted tab.

   

   The tab opens and you can join the chat.

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

   

   Your message appears in the conversation area.

   

To control chat sound alerts:

Because we want to make sure you don’t miss a chat opportunity, we’ve added a sound notification to accompany the visual notification. It kind of sounds like a little, bursting bubble. You can switch the sound notification on and off in Mail Options.

1. Click the Options menu, then select Mail Options.

   

2. To turn the sound off, uncheck the box next to Play a sound when a new chat message is received.

3. To turn the sound on, check the box again.

   

4. Click the Save Changes button to save your settings.

   

Back:
Starting a Chat

Take Me to Yahoo! Mail

Next:
Switching Between Email and Chat

What’s Next

Want to ignore a contact’s chat invitation? Just click the tab’s close button (), and the tab will go away. The contact won’t notice anything but will probably think you’re away from your computer. If you really don’t want to chat with this contact, you can take more permanent action. The Blocking Chat Messages task tells you how.