The instant messenger 'ICQ,' known for its 'Ah-Oh!' slogan, will shut down on June 26, 2024, bringing an end to its 28-year history.



VK, the company that operates ICQ , the long-standing instant messenger known for notifying users when they receive a message with a high-pitched 'Ah-oh!', has announced that it will shut down on June 26, 2024. At its peak, it was a popular tool with 9 million users and 2.5 million daily active users, but the tool will close after 28 years of use.

ICQ
https://icq.com/desktop/en



90s instant messaging service shuts down after 28 years — ICQ will stop working from June 26 | Tom's Hardware
https://www.tomshardware.com/software/applications/90s-instant-messaging-service-shuts-down-after-28-years-icq-will-stop-working-from-june-26

ICQ is an instant messenger released free of charge by an Israeli company called Mirabilis on November 15, 1996, and is named after 'I Seek You'. The sound 'Ah-oh!' that plays when you receive a message is symbolic, and can be heard in the following movie.

I tried playing the ICQ message new sound (Ah-Oh) on the 'ICQ Soundboard' - YouTube


ICQ was also able to exchange messages with AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) clients. Mirabilis was later acquired by AOL in 1998. In 2001, it was announced that the number of registered users had exceeded 100 million.



It was later replaced by competitors such as AIM and MSN Messenger in the 2000s, but remained the most popular instant messenger in Russian-speaking countries. In 2010, AOL sold ICQ to Russian technology company Digital Sky Technology, which changed its name to 'Mail.Ru' the same year.

Mail.Ru, whose main business was email services, developed ICQ, a desktop app, into a mobile messaging app. As of 2013, about half of ICQ users were using the mobile app, and in 2014 the number of users increased for the first time since the company was acquired in 2010. In 2016, the source code for the desktop client was released on GitHub under the Apache license .

Mail.Ru, which shifted its business from email services to social media in 2021, changed its name to 'VK'. VK was developing a new client app for Android and iOS to integrate ICQ with its social media, VKontakte, but the project appears to have been canceled. ICQ's mobile client app also stopped receiving updates after 2021, and it has been confirmed that it has been removed from both the Google Store and the App Store as of July 2023. VK has announced that it will end ICQ on June 26, 2024.

On May 25, 2024, the day the announcement was made, ICQ's official X (formerly Twitter) account posted a GIF animation of the T-800 sinking into a blast furnace at the end of the film ' Terminator 2. '



However, the official account also posted a GIF animation saying 'I'll be back' immediately after the above post.



IT news site Tom's Hardware commented, 'Regardless of the mysterious post suggesting ICQ's revival, ICQ's legacy from the 90s is worthy of respect. The impact that ICQ had on its users in the pre-social media era will remain forever, as many people were able to build long-term friendships and continue to have relationships afterwards. The app and social media may be shut down at some point, but the memories made on these platforms will live on forever.'

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