Yahoo messenger is shutting down after 20-yrs

Yahoo 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.

Read also: Uber developing AI system that can tell if you’re drunk

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.

 

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