Chatting With Your Contacts

All status changes take place from the status menu found at the top of the Chat & Mobile Text area on the left side of the main Mail page just below your list of folders.

The following settings let your contacts know your chat status:

• Available—you’re online and available to chat.

• Busy—you’re online and don’t want to be disturbed. Others see that you’re online and busy. They can try to chat with you, and you can decide whether or not you want to respond.

• Idle—you’re online but you haven’t done anything on your computer for a while, so Yahoo! Mail shows you as idle.

• Invisible—you’re online but appear as offline to all of your online contacts. This status lets you choose to chat with some people (letting them know you’re actually available) while apparently offline to everyone else.  

• Offline—you’re not available to chat or send mobile text messages. You can be signed into Yahoo! Mail, but you can’t initiate or receive a chat message until you change your status to Available, Busy, or Invisible.

• Custom status—you’re available or busy with a bit more information. You can create up to five custom available or busy status messages to choose from. When you create a sixth status message, the oldest of the previous five messages is deleted to make room for the new one.

You can change your status as many times as you like while signed into Yahoo! Mail. When you sign out of Mail, your current status is remembered and displays the next time you sign in. You’re still signed in to Yahoo! Mail even when you sign out of chat.

Tip for Yahoo! Messenger users: You can't use the Yahoo! Mail chat feature and Yahoo! Messenger at the same time. If you're using Messenger and you then sign into Mail, your chat status will be Offline even if you signed out of chat with an Available or Busy status. This prevents your Messenger session from closing. If you make yourself available to chat in Mail, your Messenger session will close.

Here’s How

1. To change your status during your Yahoo! Mail session, click the current status, then select a status from the menu.

   

2. To create a custom status, do the following:

   • Click the current status, then select Custom Status Message from the menu.

   • In the Custom Status Message window, select your Appear as setting, type a message in the Your Message box, then click the Save button.

     

   Your custom status appears in the status box of the Chat & Mobile Text area. Your contacts also see this status.

   

   The status also appears in the status menu where you can select it anytime.

   

   Tip: It’s not possible—or necessary—to delete a custom status messages. If you don’t want to use one any more, just create or choose a different status. Since you can have a maximum of five custom messages, once you create a sixth status message, Yahoo! Mail automatically deletes the oldest of the previous five messages.

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Starting a Chat

What’s Next

Now that you’ve let people know you’re available to chat, why not start a chat with one of your contacts?

Tip: If you want to guarantee that your friends can see you when your available to chat in Mail, make sure that they have your Yahoo! ID in their Yahoo! Contacts. For more information on Yahoo! Contacts, see the Getting Started With Yahoo! Contacts tutorial.