Telstra brings Yahoo IM to SMS

Mobile phone users in Australia can now access their Yahoo! Instant Messenger account on their mobile phones, via SMS.

The users set up their Yahoo! Instant Messenger account (YIM) by adding everyone they want to be able to exchange messages with to their 'Friends' list. They then receive an SMS detailing friends currently online.

Brian Boys, Yahoo! media producer, told ZDNet Australia: "At any time they can put their Yahoo! ID and password into an SMS and send it to a number, and it will reply showing a list of contacts that are online."

Boys said the system is already set up, so customers of Australian operator Telstra who use Yahoo! just have to send this message and they can access their YIM account.

Users are charged the standard 25 cent SMS rate for each message sent to a PC or other mobile, and for each YIM SMS message sent to their phone. However, service messages such as Help and Friends lists are sent free of charge.

David Thodey, Telstra Mobile group managing director, said in a statement: "It is the first fully integrated, popular Internet-based instant messaging service available to mobile phone users in Australia."

ICQ has offered the ability to send instant messages via SMS for several months, without charging for messages sent from a computer to a phone. However, ICQ has no way to check which of the users contacts are online.

James Pearce writes for ZD Net Australia