[RIP Yahoo! Messenger] Iconic Instant Messenger is Shutting Down

All good things must come to an end. There is an end to everything, to good things as well. This phrase perfectly fits on the good ol’ Yahoo! Messenger, an iconic instant messenger and chat client.

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After serving its users for more than 20 years, Yahoo! Messenger is going to shut down on July 17, 2018. After July 17, this great instant messenger will be discontinued and will no longer be supported by the company. Until then you can continue to use the software but after July 17, the messenger will stop working and you’ll not be able to sign in and access your chats and other services of Yahoo! Messenger.

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Now the question comes why suddenly it’s shutting down? The company says that they are working on a new and exciting communication tool that will better fit to users needs. So can we expect a new competitor to popular messengers such as WhatsApp, Facebook, etc? May be? They are building an invite-only group messaging app called “Yahoo! Squirrel” which is currently under beta stage. You can request an invite using following link:

Request Invite for Yahoo! Squirrel (No longer available)

Will it affect your Yahoo! ID? No, only messenger service is going to discontinue. Other services such as Yahoo! Mail, etc will continue working normally.

If you have some chat history, you can download and store your chat history on your computer for the next 6 months.

[Tribute] A Look Back on Yahoo! Messenger

Yahoo! Messenger was launched on March 9, 1998 with the name “Yahoo! Pager” and a year later on June 21, 1999, they rebranded it as “Yahoo! Messenger“.

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In 2007, they released a special version of Yahoo! Messenger for Windows Vista operating system which came with a brand new glassy UI and cool features. It was full of animations and eye candy effects. We told you how to use the Vista version of Yahoo! Messenger in Windows XP. Oh yeah, at that time many people were using Windows XP.

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How to Install Yahoo! Messenger’s Vista Version in Windows XP?

We also released 2 awesome skins for Yahoo! Messenger to change its user interface. The skins were available in 2 colors: Black and Blue. We received tremendous response from Yahoo! Messenger users and our skins were featured on various websites.

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Download Windows Vista Skin “Y! Vista Reloaded” for Yahoo! Messenger

Download Windows Vista Blue Skin “Y! Vista Blue” for Yahoo! Messenger

We also shared Mac OS X, Microsoft Office 2010 and Windows 8 themes for Yahoo! Messenger created by our readers.

For geeks, we shared several tutorials to tweak and customize Yahoo! Messenger look-n-feel and functionality. We shared how to change the default status messages, how to create skins for Yahoo! Messenger, how to disable/remove ads from Yahoo! Messenger, how to enable tabs feature, how to run multiple instances (polygamy) of Yahoo! Messenger.

Change Yahoo! Messenger Default Status Messages With Your Own Customized Messages

How to Create Your Own Yahoo! Messenger Skins Without Using 3rd Party Software?

How to Disable or Remove Annoying Ads from Yahoo! Messenger?

How to Enable New Tab Feature in Older Yahoo! Messenger Versions?

Enable Hidden Secret Polygamy (Multi-Login) Feature of Yahoo! Messenger

We also told you how to download full standalone offline installer of Yahoo! Messenger to save your Internet connection bandwidth:

Download Yahoo! Messenger Full Standalone Offline Installer

In 2005, an interoperability agreement happened between Yahoo! and Microsoft which allowed Yahoo! Messenger users to chat with Windows Live Messenger (WLM) users and vice versa. It was the best thing happened to Yahoo! Messenger users.

In 2016, a new version of Yahoo! Messenger released to replace the classic legacy version. It came with a modern and clean UI.

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Download New Redesigned Yahoo! Messenger Desktop App for Windows

It’s the end of an era for Yahoo! Messenger which was one of the best and top messaging services. Good bye Yahoo! Messenger. You did good. You’ll always have a special place in our hearts. Rest in peace.

Published in: Mobiles and Internet, Software

About the author: Vishal Gupta (also known as VG) has been awarded with Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award. He holds Masters degree in Computer Applications (MCA). He has written several tech articles for popular newspapers and magazines and has also appeared in tech shows on various TV channels.

Comments

NOTE: Older comments have been removed to reduce database overhead.

  1. When Y! released the 2016 version, I really disliked it. So did others, so I installed Trillion, available for computers and phones, and have been using it since.

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