Yahoo Messenger gradually began losing users
Yahoo Messenger is being killed off by Oath, the Verizon-owned company that now owns the Internet business of Yahoo. The old messaging app will be put to rest on July 17, which will also be when all the existing users, who have somehow been able to prefer Yahoo Messenger over other chat apps in today’s time, will be moved to Squirrel, a new messaging app by the company. The Yahoo Messenger users will have six months with them to download their chat history.
The two-decade-old chat platform was introduced in 1998 as Yahoo Pager and it became popular within a short span of time. The youth, then, preferred Yahoo Messenger to chat with their friends and family – it was also all the rage here in India back then. However, with the emergence of Facebook and WhatsApp, the Yahoo Messenger gradually began losing users, so much so that the word ‘Messenger’ is synonymous with Facebook Messenger, not Yahoo Messenger.
Yahoo Messenger was given a fresh inning by Yahoo with the simultaneous launches on Android, iOS, and the Web, however, it faced a stiff competition from the rivals. The Yahoo Messenger’s new journey crippled even before it could soar. The company tried refreshing the apps later, but it could bear fruits, as well. After Yahoo was acquired by Verizon Communications, Yahoo Messenger came under the control of Oath, another company that Verizon owns.
Squirrel, the company’s new app that has been under testing for quite a while, will replace Yahoo Messenger, in a hope to reignite the instant messaging business of the company. However, Verizon hasn’t found a right replacement product for Yahoo Messenger. “There currently isn’t a replacement product available for Yahoo Messenger,” Oath was quoted as saying in a report by TechCrunch. Yahoo Squirrel is currently available as invite-only, so if the user wants to sign up for the app, they will have to sign up for the beta programme.
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