Y ahoo Messenger has announced it is shutting down on 17 July 2018 after 20 years in action. “We know we have many loyal fans who have used Yahoo Messenger since its beginning as one of the first apps of its kind,” said Yahoo’s parent company, Oath. But these loyal fans weren’t enough to keep the platform going after so many years. Instant message applications were regarded as truly revolutionary 20 years ago. From the “ping” option in Yahoo Messenger to notify someone, to the “warning” lightning bolt you could send someone on AOL Instant Messenger if they were annoying you, these platforms taught us how to communicate on the internet. But, with the rise of platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Slack and WeChat, there isn’t as much use for the originals anymore. For example, over one billion people use WhatsApp every day now. The writing has been on the wall for Yahoo Messenger for a while. Oath shut down AOL’s IM platform last year after 20 years in action. As well, its major rival, MSN Messenger, which launched two years later, was finally shut down by Microsoft in 2014. However, Oath says this isn’t the end of messenger at Yahoo. It is currently working on “new, exciting communication tools” for the 21st-century consumer, namely a new platform called Squirrel. “We’re currently experimenting with new services and apps, one of which is an invite-only group messaging app called Yahoo Squirrel (currently in beta),” said Oath. Yahoo started testing Squirrel last month and if you’re interested you can request access to the beta. Oath is launching a new messaging platform, named Squirrel / Oath If you’re still using Yahoo, your Yahoo ID will still work for applications such as Yahoo Mail, following the shutdown of Messenger. But really, the most surprising thing is that people are still using Yahoo’s products such as Messenger and Mail. In 2013, the company suffered one of the biggest hacks ever, though this information wasn’t revealed until 2016. At the time, Yahoo said the stolen data may have included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of births and hashed passwords. Initially, Yahoo said around one billion accounts were affected in the data breach, though this was later chalked up to three billion, which means every single email account at Yahoo was compromised. The security breach knocked $350 million off the sale price of the company to Verizon. There are benefits to keeping up with Yahoo’s next Messenger platform, though, it’s not owned by Facebook for a start, unlike Facebook Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp. With all the problems Facebook has faced this year regarding the Cambridge Analytica data scandal, more and more people are considering leaving social media according to research by the virtual private network (VPN) comparison site, Top10VPN.com Around 52 per cent of people surveyed said they trust Facebook less than they did last year, following the CA scandal. As a result, Yahoo Squirrel could have a positive future as the non-Facebook messenger platform.<doc-sep>Verizon subsidiary Oath has announced that Yahoo Messenger is officially shutting down next month. Once one of the most popular and most innovative messaging service, Yahoo Messenger has waned in popularity in recent years… Oath says that Yahoo Messenger is shutting down on July 17th. The company is redirecting users to its new group messaging application, Squirrel. Interestingly, Squirrel is still in private beta, and it’s unclear if the service will open up to the public before Yahoo Messenger’s shutdown next month. There currently isn’t a replacement product available for Yahoo Messenger. We’re constantly experimenting with new services and apps, one of which is an invite-only group messaging app called Yahoo Squirrel (currently in beta). You can request an invite at squirrel.yahoo.com. Users will have six months to download their chat history from Yahoo Messenger. Yahoo explains that the shutdown of Messenger will allow it to focus on creating new communication tools that “better fit consumer needs.” 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. As the communications landscape continues to change over, we’re focusing on building and introducing new, exciting communications tools that better fit consumer needs. News of Yahoo Messenger’s shutdown comes six months after the shutdown of AIM. Do you have any memories of these two classic chat applications? Let us know down in the comments! Subscribe to 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Apple news: FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More. Check out 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Apple news:<doc-sep>
Yahoo Messenger hasn’t been a big deal for years, but it was absolutely massive at one point in time. Unfortunately, that chapter of our lives is about to close — since Yahoo has revealed that the service will shut down for good on July 17. “There currently isn’t a replacement product available for Yahoo Messenger,” Yahoo notes. “We’re constantly experimenting with new services and apps, one of which is an invite-only group messaging app called Yahoo Squirrel (currently in beta).” Yahoo began testing group messaging app Squirrel last month. It’s yet to be officially launched, although interested users can request to have access to the beta. Yahoo IDs will remain in service for access to Mail and fantasy sports. One of the first of its kind “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,” Yahoo continues. “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 Messenger first launched in 1998 as Yahoo Pager, back in a time before smartphones, when kids actually knew what a pager referred to. Its popularity was driven by the fact that it was not tied to one particular device or network, and could be used by anyone. Today, it looks hopelessly outdated next to newer, more popular apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat and others. Yahoo Messenger’s contemporary, AOL’s AIM app, shut down in late 2017. Do you remember using Yahoo Messenger back in the day? Let us know your nostalgic reminiscences in the comments below. Source: TechCrunch