Messenger Links | Yahoo Skype Gtalk Chat and Call links on website

Have you ever wondered about those special links that let you activate your Instant Messenger when you click a link on some website and let you talk to their customer support or Sales guy? Ever wanted to include the same on your own blog or website? Here is my one stop guide to all special messenger links.

You don’t always need to use those free chat integrations on your website that eat up your bandwidth and are not much user friendly as well. Moreover they bug your visitors with adds if you are using free versions. Almost everyone will has and knows how to use a messenger software so it could be a bit more comfortable for the users.

I am adding code snippets for the three most popular messengers on the planet – Yahoo, Gtalk, Skype
Remember these links only work if you have the respective messenger installed on your system.

Yahoo Messenger Links for your Website

<a href="ymsgr:sendIM?userid">Open an Instant Message Window</a>
<a href="ymsgr:sendIM?userid&m=add your message here">Opens yahoo IM window with a default message</a>
<a href="ymsgr:addfriend?userid">Adds the user to your buddy list</a>
<a href="ymsgr:chat?CHATROOMNAME">Starts a chat room.</a>

Gtalk Messenger (Chat and Call Links for your website / Blog)

gtalk:ACTION?jid=to-email-id&from_jid=from-email-id

Now Google Talk has one simplified global version. You can use ‘chat’ or ‘call’ (without the quotes) in place of action start a chat window or make a voice call which ever you like. The to-email-id field will carry the emailid of  the user who receives the chat or call and the from-email-id is for the sender. The latter is an optional field. You need that in case you have multiple google account to choose form.

Skype Messenger Chat and Call links

skype:USERNAME?ACTION

The Action parameter could be either ‘chat’ or ‘call’ as per your requirement. You could configure it smartly on your websites with a little bit of programming. There should be an admin page where the support guy or you can control your status and depending on the inputs the chat and call links will change sitewide.