Goodbye, ICQ! You were a loyal companion for many. (Image: Konami, VK, Livinskiy – adobe.stock.com)
Anyone who has ever used ICQ will still remember the “Ah-Oh” sound. It was heard whenever someone wrote a chat message.
From June 26, 2024, this sound will fall silent forever.
The messenger grandpa ICQ is being shut down for good. The operator VK announced this on Friday known.
Why this is important: Many people grew up with the chat program. Especially in the 1990s and early 2000s, it was hard to avoid ICQ.
Even if many people no longer use the service today, it connected an entire generation at the time.
This is how it happened: The operator, the Russian company VK since 2010, made short work of it. On Friday the following message suddenly appeared on the ICQ page.
»ICQ will no longer work from June 26th.«
Short and painless.
That was ICQ
Of course, ICQ – which stands for “I Seek You” – was not the only messenger at the time. What set it apart from AOL and MSN, however, was the specially assigned ICQ number.
Special features were sending SMS and being able to leave messages for people who weren’t online.
ICQ was launched in 1996In 1998, AOL bought the Israeli company Mirabilis, which invented the software. By this time, 100 million people worldwide were already using the service.
2001 marked the beginning of the end.
Time Warner merged with AOL, which never regained its former strength. ICQ was then sold in 2010 to Digital Sky Technologies, which also owned VK, then still under the name Mail.ru.
ICQ has not played a role for years; Messengers like WhatsApp or Telegram have long since taken over the baton. VK is now making it official and discontinuing ICQ.
Have you used ICQ?
An entire generation used the chat program in the 1990s and 2000s. Are you one of them?
Feel free to take part in our survey and share your ICQ stories in the comments. Are you sad that the green flower is wilting? Or have you already forgotten the “Ah-Oh”? And the most important question of all: Do you still know your ICQ number?
Write your opinion under this article.