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Legacy Yahoo Messenger App Being Retired (pcmag.com)

Posted by msmash on from the rip dept.

Reader Irishman writes: Looks like August 5, 2016 is the last day for people clinging to the old desktop version of Yahoo Messenger. A new version is supposedly in the works but otherwise, it will be the mobile app or the web version. From a PCMag report: According to a new announcement from Yahoo, the company is officially killing off the old version of Messenger for good. You might be able to find it to download from some software archive website, but you won't be able to use it to chat with your friends. Yahoo is also switching up how it archives previous conversations. Any conversation histories you currently have (from using Messenger) are archived in Yahoo Mail, but they'll be going away on August 5 as well. You'll be able to export them to your desktop or laptop if you really need to save whatever it is you have typed to your friends.

6 of 61 comments (clear)

  1. Shock by drdread66 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    When the human body goes into shock from blood loss, the first reaction is to shut off blood flow to the extremities so there is enough blood left to keep the brain and core going. I see this announcement as analogous for Yahoo, except it's "cash shock" at work.

  2. Yahoo is a big deal in commodities trading by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I work in physical commodities trading. Think cargoes of fuel, grain, derivatives, etc. 90% of my deals are closed via Yahoo, either directly with counterparties or via brokers. Brokers "flash" obscure quotes for things such as Eurobob/WTI spreads, ethanol, calendar spread swaps, truckloads of X ready to go to Y, etc. Not sure if there are any profesions who rely on Yahoo as much as mine. (Incidentally, a lot of guys in other markets use AOL, mostly natural gas).

    1. Re:Yahoo is a big deal in commodities trading by The-Ixian · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I recall doing some work for a commodities trader at one point (about 10 years ago).

      He was using Yahoo! and AOL messenger and needed a way to record all conversations that he and his staff were having while using these platforms.

      I remember setting up a Jabber server as a proxy and did all the logging at the server level.

      Anyway, it is interesting to hear your comment. Thanks for sharing.

      --
      My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
  3. Re:This kills YM completely! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Pidgin still works fine. I just checked and my account is still connected. Do I lose my pidgin connection soon? I have 0 buddies on yahoo so I do not really care. I just use it to keep the old screen name active.

  4. Re:This kills YM completely! by war4peace · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Wow. Just wow.
    I have over 500 contacts in my Y!M list, out of which I am usually chatting with about 30 of them.
    Yahoo Web messenger is horrible. Generally speaking, any messenger that loads in a browser window is horrible.
    I'm wondering what are the alternatives...

    Facebook is a total no-go. Whatsapp requires a valid phone number, many people I know don't want to provide their phone number just for a chat service. Google Talk would be the best alternative I can think of.

    --
    ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
  5. Re:This kills YM completely! by kelemvor4 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Anything but "Skype for business" - which is probably one of the causes of the spectular growth of Slack.

    You would think that chat is a solved problem by now. Even Sametime in Lotus Notes is okay. But Skype... plain terrible. It's as if they wanted to cater to the kewl crowd by giving it a texting look & feel, but it just sucks.

    Gonna have to disagree with you there. Sametime is hands down the worst chat system I've ever used. We have used it for years at my office. Everyone's taken to calling it sometime because sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Yahoo messenger isn't great but at least it usually works.