Yahoo Messenger is dead
Yahoo revealed today that it will no longer support Yahoo Messenger, the company's instant messaging program, after July 17, 2018.
Yahoo Messenger users can use the program like they normally do until July 17, 2018. From July 18, 2018 on users won't be able to access chats and other services related to Yahoo Messenger anymore. In other words: Yahoo Messenger's backend is shut down at that time so that connections are not longer supported.
Yahoo published a small FAQ in which the company tries to answer some of the most pressing questions that Yahoo Messenger users may have.
The company reveals why it decided to kill Yahoo Messenger -- because of changes in how people communicate with each other -- and how users can preserve the chat history before the service is shut down for good.
Yahoo revealed that users of Messenger may request to download their chat history on the following site. The company notes that users may do so for the next six months but that they won't be able to do so after that period.
Users need to sign in on the site and type the Account Key that is sent to them by Yahoo. A download option is provided afterward but the chat history is not downloaded automatically. You need to provide an email address for the file and Yahoo will sent the history to that email address.
The change won't affect any other Yahoo products or the Yahoo ID. Yahoo Messenger applications installed on computer systems or mobile devices will stop working after July 17, 2018. Yahoo recommends that users remove them from their devices as they can't be used anymore after the date.
Yahoo has no direct replacement for Yahoo Messenger users. The company recommends Yahoo Squirrel, a beta invite-only group messaging application. Users may request an invite on the Yahoo Squirrel page.
There has been a bit of restructuring going after after Verizon acquired Yahoo in 2016. Oath, the new parent company of Yahoo and AOL, sold Flickr recently to SmugMug, and shut down AOL Messenger AIM back in 2017.
We speculated about the future of Yahoo's Web Properties back in 2017 and suggested that the new owner of Yahoo could take a hard look at Yahoo owned properties and applications, and sell or retire those that don't fit in the portfolio or are not used by enough users.
There are plenty of alternatives available. We looked at some when Aol shut down its Messenger, and the list of alternatives is fine for Yahoo Messenger users as well.
Now You: What's your take on the retiring of Yahoo Messenger?
Who cares
I do. Because messengers (in general) were an important part of my life and it is sad to see them go. And it is even sadder because the applications that allowed true communication between people are replaced with ones like social networks, where the focus is on self promotion, and not real communication.
Well said, Nebulus.
Both Jabber (XMPP) and IRC are still open and available.
It is sad. Thanks for you beautiful written obituary.
I do.
While I never used Yahoo Messenger, I used Skype, ICQ and mIRC, I only installed Yahoo Messenger to see what it’s like.
Those times of IMs were better than the social media garbage age right now, because you would just turn the messenger off and you were offline for good.
Those were the days…
Now I only use Discord and e-mail, I refuse to give in to that social media crap that has infected the world.
Amen brother. You speak the truth.
R.I.P. Yahoo Messenger. I had some great times there admittedly, and the program itself was not bad at all. Too bad Yahoo as a company suffered a lot more than this.
Martin, your first link on the announcement doesn’t work for me. This one seems better:
https://help.yahoo.com/kb/messenger/SLN28776.html?impressions=true#cont1
Thanks, I have edited it.
Martin, you said it: Yahoo Messenger is dead. I think they just didn’t realize it until recently.
I’m honestly surprised to hear that Yahoo Messenger was still a thing!
Yahoo, with M.M who has destroyed Flickr and treated pro members as “moins que rien”. Can’t wait for “Yahoo is dead”.
For me it died when they removed it from windows 7….
Actually i am not using their mail anymore, non of their services…
100% they will die in next 5 years
No, they won’t. There are a lot of people who have OLD emails on their server and they don’t want to change it.
Some day Facebook will be dead too as people migrate to Snapchat and Martin writes the obituary.
wise words
Well Yahoo! was better than Skype. After Microshit killed MSN/Windows Live Messenger, I used to like Yahoo!, but now we have Telegram which is the ultimate king in terms of quality and versatility although WhatsApp is more popular.
Any suggestions for a chat client that supports text, audio and video calls, isn’t Skype and is available on all major desktop and mobile platforms?
WIRE.
Discord…
I second the Discord suggestion; either that or Telegram, though I can’t remember if Telegram can do video/audio calls?
However, I would still suggest Discord as the first option and only check out Telegram if you don’t like/want to use Discord.
Telegram does audio calls, and very well too.
Thanks for the suggestions, keep’em coming. I currently use Trillian 6 which I like due to its Facebook support. No video chat though.
Telegram doesn’t do video, don’t know about audio. Wire looks nice, but not free. I have no issue with that, the problem is convincing others to use it. It’s already hard enough to convince people out of Skype.
I’ll have to check Discord out, though they keep saying it’s for gamers.
I love it when ppl say “its for gamers”….. anything is for gamers. Discord on the other hand is a very capable free to use communications system, thats robust and reliable… just happens gamers use it..
I had a load of techs amazed at my old N52te keypad… “but thats for gamers!” – with it setup for Photoshop, Sketchup, etc… (ok and a few games…) they did’nt look beyond the “gamer” tag and see a fully programable keypad that is like magic in programs with a lot of shortcuts….
@Khai Bach “I love it when ppl say “its for gamersâ€â€¦.. anything is for gamers.”
It’s not “ppl”, it’s Discord themselves. On their main home page, right below the title and pretty much everywhere else.
https://discordapp.com/
It’s for gamers, Discord has been advertising themselves as “gamers” chat app from the start. Just because it’s for gamers doesn’t mean you can’t use it for something else.
You can use the expensive professional drawing tablet for gaming for example
Depends on what your friends use and your needs.
If you want something like Whatsapp but with native client on PC, try Telegram or LINE.
If you want to focus with group chat and communities, try Discord.
The reason Skype is not popular nowadays is same like Yahoo Messenger: People need to create accounts and add friends manually.
People want simple thing like Whatsapp, simply install and all your friends are already available in contact list.
Line looks interesting, since it also includes video chat. Whatsapp would be nice but their desktop implementation is useless.
Well Discord its a upgraded version of TeamSpeak.
You can use it an regular text messenger AND you can create servers with a lots of functions. But for now it doesnt suport Video chat.
[Personaly I use it for Game Jam’s]
So I would sugest you to try Twich app
(somewhat recently bought from Curse)
You can do everything you could do with Skype and and you can create “Groups” with functions similar to Discord’s servers but not so advanced
[So I use it for Streaming / Video chat]
I never used it, but it looks like a weak move. Pairing mail service and messenger seems like a good idea, removing a messenger does not look logical.
well it seems the download is not working… (been 24 hours since I requested mine….)
“Oauth, the new parent company of Yahoo and AOL”
The new company name is Oath.
It is or will be Smugmug very soon. Don’t know if that is a better name though…
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/oath
Scroll down to definitions 5 and 6:
5. an irreverent or blasphemous use of the name of God or anything sacred.
6. any profane expression; curse; swearword.
Yep, sounds about right.
“Yahoo Messenger is dead”
LONG LIVE Yahoo Messenger!
@Khai Bach
“Discord on the other hand is a very capable free to use communications system”
It may be free to use but it’s a proprietary application. I wouldn’t trust it, especially not with my communications!
“… just happens gamers use it..”
A lot of gamers aren’t propeller heads, they’ll use what’s cool, what’s in, what the whole gang is using at the moment, that doesn’t mean it’s a wise choice.
“thats robust and reliable”
My coffee is robust. IRC is reliable.