Perhaps you’re like us who are hit by nostalgia of losing another one of the pioneers of the instant messaging segment. But with stiff competition coming from all sides and the inability of Yahoo to keep up, it doesn’t surprise us that Yahoo is finally closing the doors on Yahoo Messenger. It will officially shut down next month on July 17th. It’s been 20 years since Messenger (originally Yahoo! Pager) launched and it offered not just instant messaging but file transfers and chat rooms as well. Desktop versions of the app have been shut down since mid-2016 but now all the remaining apps (those on iOS, Android, and web browser) will stop working, too.
After the shutdown, the apps will stop working and you won’t be able to sign in. If you want to extract your chat history, this option will be available for the next six months. You will need to sign into Yahoo’s downloader request site, verify your identity and then give your email address for where you want your chat log sent to. Yahoo doesn’t have an immediate replacement for Messenger outside out of its new chat service Squirrel, which launched in closed beta this May. Its focus is on group chats and it currently relies on invitations instead of going through your contacts to build the groups so we’re not sure if this is a worthy alternative. You’re rife with choice out there though so it might be high time you try something new.
Source: SlashGear