New Delhi: It is Yahoo Messenger’s last working day today on the worldwide web. Beginning tomorrow, Yahoo Messenger users will not be able to log in to one of the oldest instant messaging service launched 20 years ago in March 1998. With the proliferation of internet services, Yahoo’s Messenger’s popularity soared in the nineties but plummeted after WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat and Google chats gained currency.
In desperate attempts to resurrect the instant messaging service, Yahoo, owned by Verizon Communications, had redesigned the IM several times but nothing seems to have worked in its favour.
Will Yahoo declare Squirrel as its next instant messaging app?
There is no official word from Yahoo yet on whether it is coming up with a replacement for Yahoo Messenger, but indications are clear that Squirrel could be a replacement. “As the communications landscape continues to change, we’re focusing on building and introducing new, exciting communications tools that better fit consumer needs,” says Yahoo on its website.
“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),” it adds.
You can request an invite to join Squirrel here.
How to download Yahoo Messenger chat history?
Although you will not be able to access the chat history after today on Yahoo Messenger because the log-in itself will be disabled, there is an option to download your chat history.
Just go to the Yahoo Messenger downloader request site here before 30 November and download all data you’ve ever had to your personal computer or device.
Yahoo will send you an email with a file of the chat history.
Why was Yahoo Messenger so important?
At its peak during the nineties, several love stories were written on Yahoo Messenger chat messages. For others, it helped them find agony aunts to vent out their frustration or just find pure friendship without borders in a world when internet access was still limited to a handful of people.
Not just the nineties’ kids, but oil traders will also be particularly nostalgic about the death of Yahoo Messenger as it was the default communication tool for them since the late 1990s. “From Singapore to Rotterdam, daily deals were pitched, contracts negotiated and global price benchmarks assessed on the chat service, with its deep-purple colour scheme punctuated by Yahoo’s trademark exclamation point and dead-eyed yellow smiley emoticon,” a Bloomberg report had said.
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