If anyone out there still using Yahoo’s old desktop Messenger, keep in mind that this 18-year old service is going to bite the dust by August 5, 2016. This shutting down of Messenger is to focus on its new app version, said the company in an announcement.In the fact, the Messenger service has already vanished from the Yahoo downloads.
Yahoo had announced a new version of Yahoo Messenger for mobile, the Web and in Yahoo Mail on the desktop in December 2015. “This complete revamp brings users an incredibly fast, beautiful and smart way to send – and unsend – messages, photos, and animated GIFs in 1:1 and group conversations. While today we provide basic interoperation between the legacy product and the new Messenger, we encourage all of our users to complete their transition to the new Yahoo Messenger as we will no longer support the legacy platform as of August 5, 2016. We intend to continue our focused efforts on the new Messenger, with a goal of delivering the best experience to our users,” the announcement said.
To catch up with major competitors such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, Yahoo might integrate new features in the new version of Yahoo Messenger. It hasn’t announced any timeline to complete the new version of Yahoo Messenger. However, the company said that the new version will be available on Windows and Mac.
The “Archived messages” that are now saved in the user’s Yahoo Mail, will also get deleted by August 5. Users can export them to laptop/desktop before the said date. Another service that gets discontinued is Yahoo Recommends. This will disappear by September 1, 2016. Instead, the company has asked the users to use Yahoo Gemini, a new monetization tool that provides publishers access to native advertising technology and high-quality ads.
