Advanced Chat Features

Contacts with Yahoo! IDs in your address book automatically show up in your online contacts whenever they are online. To include a contact with a Windows Live ID (usually someone with a @hotmail.com email address), you must first request permission to chat.

Note: If you already have Windows Live contacts on your Messenger List, they will automatically show up among your online contacts list in Mail.

There are several ways to send a request for permission to chat to your Windows Live friends.

Here’s How

Using the Windows Live contacts wizard:

When you first make yourself available to chat, you have the option of running the Windows Live contacts wizard. The wizard searches your address book for all Windows Live contacts and lets you send chat requests to as many of them as you want at once—much faster than adding them one-by-one.

1. Click on the Add Windows Live contacts link in the Contact Added or other promotional window.

   

   AT&T Mail returns a window showing all Windows Live contacts that it found in your address book.

2. Select the people from the list you want to add to your online contacts, then click Add.

   

   A message confirms that your requests to add online contacts have been sent.

3. Click OK.

   

While adding a new contact from email:

When you add a new Windows Live contact to your address book from an email message, you have the option of sending a request to chat at the same time.

1. Open a message in AT&T Mail.

2. Click the add contact icon () next to the sender’s email address.

   

   The Add Contact window opens, showing the contact’s email address and name (if available in the message).

3. Enter a Windows Live chat ID for the new contact, select Windows Live from the pull-down menu, then check the Add to my online list option.

   

4. Click the Save button to add the contact.

   AT&T Mail confirms that the contact has been added and that he will receive a message asking permission to be added to your list of online contacts.

   

By editing an existing contact:

If you already have a Windows Live contact in your address book, you can add it to your online contact list.

1. Find the contact in your address book and open its detail page for editing. (Remind me how.)

2. In the Instant Messaging section of page, fill if the Windows Live chat ID (if it’s not already there) and check the Show this contact in my online list option.

   

3. Save the changes to the contact.

Back:
Unblocking Chat Messages

Next:
If You Use Yahoo! Messenger

What’s Next

When your friend gets your request, she must accept it and send a request back to also add you to her online contacts. Once you accept her return request, she’ll appear in your online contacts list and you two can chat.

You can use emoticons with your Windows Live™ Messenger friends, but they won’t be able to see your avatar or text changes such as italics or color in your messages.