Skip to search.

Breaking News Visit Yahoo! News for the latest.

×Close this window

Sharing Messenger Lists

OverviewSharing Your Messenger ListAccepting Contacts From a Shared Messenger List

Sharing Your Messenger List

You can share your Messenger List with one or more contacts.

Tip: You cannot share Messenger Lists with contacts outside the Yahoo! network, such as Windows Live™ Messenger contacts and Pingbox™ visitors.

Note: Yahoo! Messenger maintains the privacy and security of all contacts by requiring each contact to approve the addition of his or her name to another person’s Messenger List. This approval takes place when your friends add your shared contacts to their Messenger Lists.

 

Here’s How

  1. In the Messenger window, select Send My Messenger List from the Actions menu.

    The Send My Messenger List window opens.

  2. In the Send My Messenger List window, select one or more contacts as the recipients of your list, then click the Next button.

    Select the recipients of your list

    Tips:

    To send your Messenger List to an entire group, select the group before selecting Actions > Send My Messenger List. All of the contacts in the group will be selected in the Send My Messenger List window (except non-Yahoo! contacts).

    If you are instant messaging a contact, you can select Send My Messenger List from the Actions menu in the conversation window and send your list to just that contact.

  3. In the next display of the Send My Messenger List window, do the following:

    • If you have multiple aliases, select the one you would like your recipients to see.

      Select your alias.

    • Select the contacts you would like to send.

      • To send individual contacts, check the box next to each contact.

        Select individual contacts.

      • To select a group of contacts, check the group box.

        Select a group of contacts.

      • To select all contacts in your Messenger List, check the Select all box.

        Select all contacts.

        Tip: Don’t be concerned about whether or not a recipient already has a certain contact on his or her List. Messenger won’t duplicate IDs and will let the recipient know that the contact already exists.

    • To let your recipients see the names you have for the contacts you’re sending, check Let the other person see my names for these contacts.

      Check Let the other person see my names for these contacts.

      Tip: Unchecking this option sends only the IDs of the selected contacts.

  4. Click the Next button (the Finish button if you’re sending to just one contact).

    If you’re sending your Messenger List to one contact only, a conversation window opens on your screen with a note telling you that you’ve sent the contacts.

    A note saying that the contacts were sent to one recipient.

    If you’re sending to multiple contacts, the last display of the Send My Messenger List window tells you that an instant message has been sent to all of your recipients.

    A note saying that the contacts were sent to multiple recipients.

  5. If you send to multiple contacts, click the Finish button to close the window.

 

What’s Next

Learn how to accept contacts when someone shares his or her Messenger List with you.

 
 
 

Words to Know

  • Alias: a unique name that identifies you to others when you don’t want to share your Yahoo! ID. You might, for example, prefer to use an alias in a chat room or on a message board.
  • Contact: a person with whom you interact; someone to whom you might want to send an email, instant message, or text message.
  • Messenger List: the main part of the Contact List in Yahoo! Messenger. The Messenger List includes the contacts with whom you communicate most often.
  • Pingbox: an embedded box on a Web page where visitors to the page can send you instant messages and which lists visitors on your Messenger List.
  • Windows Live™ Messenger: Microsoft® Windows’ free instant messaging application.