Yahoo Messenger to Be Discontinued July 17

[starbuck]

The announcement comes just six months after Yahoo and AOL parent company Oath discontinued AIM.

If you're interested in downloading your Yahoo Messenger chat history, be sure to do that soon.

 

 

Pour one out for Yahoo Messenger.

Yahoo has announced plans to discontinue the vintage chat service on July 17, 2018.

 

"We know we have many loyal fans who have used Yahoo Messenger since its beginning as one of the first chat apps of its kind," the company wrote.

"As the communications landscape continues to change over, we're focusing on building and introducing new, exciting communications tools that better fit consumer needs."

 

Yahoo first introduced the chat service in 1998, a year after the now-defunct AOL Instant Messenger (otherwise known as AIM) made its debut.

The company originally called the service Pager, but in 1999 rebranded it to Messenger.

 

Under former CEO Marissa Mayer, Yahoo in 2015 launched a new version of Messenger with features like bulk photo sharing, easy access to GIFs, and a Snapchat-esque remote delete function.

But trying to compete for users in a crowded market dominated by modern apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype, Viber, Snapchat, Line, and Telegram proved difficult.

The revamped version of Messenger never really caught on with the masses.

 

Now, Messenger will only continue working normally until July 17.

After that date, you will no longer be able to access your chats and the service won't work.

Your Yahoo ID will continue to work for other Yahoo properties like Mail and Fantasy.

 

You have six months to download your Messenger chat history, if you want it.

To do that, head over to Yahoo's downloader request site, sign in, select a verification method, enter the code sent to you, click Download, and enter an email where you want the file sent.

 

In its announcement, Yahoo said it doesn't have an immediate replacement product for Messenger, but is working on a group messaging app called Squirrel, which is currently in beta and only available to those with an invitation.

If you're interested in trying out Squirrel, you can head here to request an invite.

 

 

Source:

Yahoo Messenger to Be Discontinued July 17

[allheart55 Cindy E]

I can't believe that there are people out there that still use Yahoo Messenger. :D

[AWS]

I can't believe that there are people out there that still use Yahoo Messenger. :D

Many do. I use it to keep in touch with some of them too.

[allheart55 Cindy E]

I am surprised, especially since Facebook came out with their own Messenger.

[starbuck]

I had a member on another site that I helped a number of times.

I tried everything to get her to ditch Yahoo .... but she always said that she needed it for the 'Messenger'.

She'll have to find something else now. lol.

[AWS]

I am surprised, especially since Facebook came out with their own Messenger.

I closed my Facebook account. Got tired of the ads that kept being added into my feed. No matter what I did I couldn't stop them. I had all ad settings set off and still got them. Then I noticed that you have to explicitly opt out of each ad separately. That was it for me.

[Tony D]

Got tired of the ads that kept being added into my feed.

I hear ya on that.

[allheart55 Cindy E]

I detest the Facebook ads.

Ad Block Plus and Ad-Muncher do help a little but they don't get rid of them entirely.

[plodr]

Have you added Fanboy's filters to ABP? (I use uBlockOrigin and I've added to that)

Fanboy Adblock Homepage

 

I usually add Social Site blocking because I don't want to see Facebook, Twitter or Pinterst because I use none of those.