Internet pioneer ICQ to shut down

[Kyng]

https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/25/24164...-down-june

Your ICQ number is finally shuffling off to the great beyond. Russian company VK, which has been the service’s steward since 2010, published a message Friday that simply reads, “ICQ will stop working from June 26th,” and implores users to switch to its other chat solutions.

ICQ was among the crop of early instant messenger services, like AOL Instant Messenger or MSN Messenger, that allowed for real-time chats. It differed from others by assigning users a number they would use to connect to one another, as opposed to aliases or email addresses. It also had uncommon features like SMS messaging and the ability to message people who were offline.

And of course, those of us of a certain age probably remember the “Uh oh!” alert that would play when you received a message.

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Sad to see - but, to be honest, I'm amazed that it's lasted for as long as it has. I don't know anyone who's used this service in the past 20 or so years.

Has anyone here used it at all - and, if so, do you have any happy memories of it?

[JHG]

If it’s a pioneer, how come I never heard of it until now?

[Kyng]

If it’s a pioneer, how come I never heard of it until now?

Probably because it was most relevant 20+ years ago - and it was largely obsolete by the time you started using the internet!

[JHG]

If it’s a pioneer, how come I never heard of it until now?

Probably because it was most relevant 20+ years ago - and it was largely obsolete by the time you started using the internet!

Nope, I was using the Internet in 2004.

[Kyng]

If it’s a pioneer, how come I never heard of it until now?

Probably because it was most relevant 20+ years ago - and it was largely obsolete by the time you started using the internet!

Nope, I was using the Internet in 2004.

Well, even 2004 would have been pretty late for ICQ: I think most people had moved on to AIM and MSN Messenger by then (though ironically, ICQ did end up outliving both of those services ).

Admittedly, many forums still had a field for entering your ICQ number post-2004 (and TCH actually still has that field to this day ). However, that's mostly just a legacy feature that nobody ever bothered getting rid of.

[Moonface]

I honestly thought ICQ had died over a decade ago as nobody ever seemed to use the profile field for it on IF/ZB forums and I think the staff may have even got Brandon to remove the field due to having no use, but I may be mistaken on that.

I'd be curious to know where all of the remaining active users will spread out to for alternatives, even if it doesn't feel like there are really that many options nowadays to choose from.

[Kyng]

I honestly thought ICQ had died over a decade ago as nobody ever seemed to use the profile field for it on IF/ZB forums and I think the staff may have even got Brandon to remove the field due to having no use, but I may be mistaken on that.

I'd be curious to know where all of the remaining active users will spread out to for alternatives, even if it doesn't feel like there are really that many options nowadays to choose from.

I'm pretty sure he removed a field, but it might have been the AIM one, since that shut down in December 2017 (when ZetaBoards was still active).

As for where the remaining users will go: probably wherever their friends/family are . Which I suspect is most likely to be WhatsApp: it could also be SnapChat, Telegram, Discord, or somewhere else, but those three all seem less likely to me.

(Another thing I'm curious about is why the remaining users - whoever they are - were still using ICQ!)