Yahoo Messenger shuts down: The story of first real global messaging app

With the inception of app-based instant-messaging platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, the once popular Yahoo! Messenger lost its charm

Yahoo!, a web service provider owned by Oath, on July 17 pulled the plug on its internet-based instant messaging service the Yahoo! Messenger, putting it to rest after a long run of around 20 years. Launched by the Stanford graduates Jerry Yang and David Filo in 1998, the Yahoo Messenger became the most used service of its time as it provided an alternative solution to time-consuming email and costly short message services (SMS).

In 2009, Yahoo! Messenger had more than 122.6 million users on its platform. However, with the inception of smartphones and mobile devices, the app-based instant-messaging platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger took over; making early messaging platforms such as MSN messenger and AOL quit the game, now followed by Yahoo! Messenger.

Stickers and animated emoticons

Stickers on photos and animated emoticons aka emojis have only restarted surfacing on most popular instant messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, WhatApp, etc. However, Yahoo! Messenger had it even when the smartphones were not there, leave alone the apps. Interestingly, the messenger also had India-specific emojis and stickers that made it quite popular in India.

Yahoo Avatar

Avatar

Profile picture on instant messaging platforms has been a common feature that is there for some time. However, Yahoo! Messenger was among the first platforms to provide customised avatar-based profile pictures, along with regular photo profile. There also was an option to share different profile pictures with different people or to disable them completely.

Chat rooms

Now, this is one of the features that most of the early Yahoo! Messenger users would know. At a time when Tinder was not there or the idea of online dating was considered a taboo in India, Yahoo! Messenger chat rooms used to be the place where single Indian men and women used to virtually hang out together, know each other and then find a way in to each other’s chat lists. There were loads of pre-defined chat rooms, and there was an option to create a personalised chat room based on one’s preference.

IMvironment

IMvironment is what we know as themes today. The Yahoo! Messenger had several built-in themes such as snowfall, falling heart, etc. However, unlike the static theme that we see in current mobile apps, Yahoo! messenger had dynamic interactive themes that used to animate.

Buzzing

To be honest, the buzz feature would do well if introduced to any app in today’s time. It was a simple feature to send a buzz shake to grab their attention. Take a look at the animated GIF above to understand what it did.