IM clients have evolved a lot. From the days when they were simple chat windows with a few emoticons, today they have become complete suites with loads of customizable features, support for sound and video chats, file sharing capabilities and integration with third-party tools. Yahoo! Messenger is no exception in this evolution.

With the newly launched Yahoo! Messenger 10 (Final version) you'll be able to keep in touch with your online friends, not only within the Yahoo! network, but also with your contacts from MSN, Gmail, Facebook and other networks, which Yahoo! Messenger imports via an easy step-by-step wizard.

Regarding design and layout, this new version of Yahoo! Messenger features a shiny, user-friendly interface that makes it a breeze to use. It also includes a complete settings menu and, like any other decent IM client these days, a ton of customizable settings: avatars, interface skins, animated wallpapers (a bit too ad-ridden for my taste) and the usual collection of emoticons, winks and other goodies to spice up your chats.

Yahoo! Messenger 10 includes many little details that you'll probably discover only after using it for some time: things like invisibility preferences (you can choose to be hidden from a certain contact only), integration with Twitter and other social networks, an excellent chat archive utility, the handy Photo Sharing tool and the wide variety of games and activities you can play with your friends make of this program an excellent choice for IM communication.

But if there's one feature that stands out in Yahoo! Messenger 10 it's video calls. Image quality is simply amazing, one of the fastest and smoothest I've seen. With all these excellent characteristics, I wouldn't be surprised if Yahoo! Messenger 10 became your new favorite IM client!

The new version of Yahoo! Messenger stands out for its high-quality video and voice chats, but includes also many other interesting features well worth a try.