Until recently I tried to give Instant Messengers a wide berth as I found it really distracting getting pinged constantly by dozens of people in some instances I barely knew. But after clearing out a lot of contacts I’ve started using MSN Messenger again. I use MSN Messenger rather than AOL or Yahoo! because it’s the most popular IM client by far in the UK with around 75% market share.
For someone who’s supposed to be quite technically savvy and cutting edge, my IM client until recently was not customised at all. I have though been playing with HiYo for the last couple of days. HiYo is a free add-on for Windows Live Messenger, that provides additional Winks, Animations, Emoticons and Sounds.
Installing HiYo is very simple and done in a few clicks. The software doesn’t contain any adware, spyware or crapware and given that it’s so small it will run on any machine that will run Windows Live Messenger 8.1 and 8.5. Once it is installed, an additional toolbar is added to the compose message window allowing the HiYo content to be accessed quickly, including interactive talking animations.
What I found really clever was that HiYo would automatically suggest content based on your converseration, which helps keep conversations flowing rather than wasting precious seconds trying to find the ‘perfect’ wink or emoticon. An additional nice side benefit is that HiYo can also display a photo slideshow instead of a static user display image. Very handy if you want to share your latest snaps with your friends.
The best way to see all of HiYo’s features is to install it. Go on, give it a try! It only takes a few seconds to install.
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