Is Yahoo! Messenger Discontinued? What Happened?
Fate: Yahoo shut it down in July 2018 after 20 years. By then most people had moved to texting and phone apps. People who used it when they were younger still remember things like the Buzz button and the away messages they used to write.
Yahoo! Messenger was a free chat program that ran on your computer. You could use it to see when your friends and family were online and send them messages right away.
It started in 1998 under the name Yahoo! Pager. Yahoo renamed it Yahoo! Messenger the next year. Over time it added a lot of features. One of the most popular was something called Audibles. You could pick a short sound clip and send it to the person you were chatting with. It would play out of their speakers. Another feature called Buzz let you click a button that would shake the other person's chat window to get their attention fast.
Yahoo! Messenger also had webcam chat, which let you see the other person through a camera while you talked. That was something most people had never tried before. You could also share files, send messages to someone even when they were offline, and hang out in public chat rooms where anyone could join.
A lot of people used it for more than just quick messages. Friends kept each other's screen names and checked who was online after school or after work. People wrote funny or cryptic away messages to let everyone know their mood or what song they were listening to. Coworkers used it to send quick questions without picking up the phone.
In 2005 and 2006, Yahoo and Microsoft made their messaging apps work together for a short time. That meant Yahoo! Messenger users could chat with people on MSN Messenger. It was unusual for competing apps to share users like that.
By the time smartphones became popular, most people moved to texting or newer apps built for phones. Yahoo released a newer version of the messenger around 2015, but by then people had already switched. Yahoo shut down Yahoo! Messenger in July 2018.
People who grew up using it still remember the sound it made when someone came online, the Buzz button, and the long away messages that became a small art form on their own.
Timeline
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1998
- Yahoo! Pager goes live. It is a simple desktop chat program that lets you see when other Yahoo users are online and send them messages right away.
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1999
- The service gets renamed Yahoo! Messenger. More people sign up as it becomes a free option alongside AOL Instant Messenger.
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2000–2003
- The program adds webcam chat so you can see the person you are talking to. It also adds Audibles, which are short sound clips you can send to someone during a chat, and Buzz, which shakes the other person's chat window when you click it. Chat rooms and group messaging show up too. Millions of people use Yahoo! Messenger as their main way to talk online.
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2004–2006
- Yahoo! Messenger is at its most popular. Yahoo and Microsoft make their chat apps work together for a short time, so users of Yahoo! Messenger can message people on MSN Messenger. Away messages become a way for people to share song lyrics or jokes with anyone who checks their profile.
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2007–2011
- People start moving to Facebook and other social networks. Texting on phones also pulls users away. Yahoo! Messenger starts losing ground.
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2012
- Yahoo shuts down the chat rooms. The program starts getting fewer updates.
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2015–2017
- Yahoo releases a new version of the app to try to compete with newer messaging programs. By then most people have already switched to phone apps and the new version does not gain much ground.
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2018
- Yahoo shuts down Yahoo! Messenger in July 2018. Users get a short window of time to download their old chat history. The service ends after 20 years.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Yahoo! Messenger discontinued?
Yes. Yahoo shut down Yahoo! Messenger on July 17, 2018.
What was Yahoo! Messenger originally called?
It started out as Yahoo! Pager in 1998. Yahoo renamed it Yahoo! Messenger in 1999.
Why do people still remember Yahoo! Messenger so strongly?
Because it came with features that felt fun and personal. Things like the Buzz button, the Audibles sound clips, the away messages people wrote, and the webcam chat all made it feel lively. For a lot of people it was one of the first times they ever talked to someone online in real time.
Why did Yahoo! Messenger decline?
Most people switched to smartphones and the new messaging apps that came with them. Yahoo released a newer version around 2015 but by then people had already moved on. The way people talked online had changed.
Did Yahoo! Messenger ever connect with another major IM network?
Yes. For a time in 2005 and 2006, Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger were made to work together. Users of both apps could send messages to each other.
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