After almost three decades it is finally over: ICQ is being discontinued. The Instant messaging service, which many of us will certainly still remember, has already ceased operations for good yesterday. Who knows his ICQ number still? Many people probably still remember the sequence of numbers that used to be the key to real-time communication in Internet was. Now the ICQ number has become useless. It is astonishing that the messenger has existed for so long.
ICQ: From underdog to high-flyer and back to insignificance
ICQ (buy now 149,00 € ) has been around since 1996, when I was still in kindergarten. A start-up from Israel called Mirabilis created the instant messenger service from scratch – and thus opened up a whole new world of new world of communication.
Advertisement
ICQ was not the very first service of its kind, but one of the first and a Pioneer in the field. Send messages in real time over the Internet? Almost 30 years ago, ICQ brought to the mass market what is now the most normal thing in the world. 90s However, this was no less than a Revolution in communication. But ICQ didn’t really take off until 1998.
In the year in which Google AOL bought the Israeli messenger service ICQ for just over $400 million and gave ICQ a real boost in the US and worldwide. At its peak, ICQ could around 100 million active users demonstrate.
Twelve years later, AOL wanted to get rid of the service. At that time, however, iPhones already existed, Android smartphones and services like WhatsApp. ICQ lost importance and so AOL sold the messenger service for significantly less money to a Russian company called Mail.ru, today known as VKontakte. Almost 188 million were paid.
Advertisement
Another 14 years later, in 2024, ICQ is finally over. The messenger service was discontinued on June 26. I remember the ICQ time back.
After 28 years we finally say goodbye to ICQ
Although I am a huge technology and Smartphone fan, but the early internet times were something special. To use ICQ, you had to sit down at a desk in front of a PC. I didn't have a laptop back then. To be able to chat, you had to start a program and log in. Only then did the list of contacts pop up. And even then, you had to be lucky.
If you are not interested in a particular Time agreed for chatting it was purely a matter of luck who was online and who wasn't. To chat was still a real independent employment, for which one took (sometimes a lot of) time. Nowadays it is simply a part of the diverse communication without spatial or temporal boundaries.
With the end of ICQ, one of the last active memories of this time dies. Of course, I also have Haven't used ICQ in ages. The last time must have been in 2011, on my first smartphones, the very first HTC Desire. I no longer have ICQ installed on my second phone, which I bought at the end of 2011 (Samsung Galaxy Nexus). The messenger service was important already forever no more.
Read also
Preview of Supervive: LoL, that's like Apex!
In the new top-down hero shooter Supervive, Apex Legends meets League of Legends. We've taken a look at it in advance!
Why, Microsoft? This Windows change brings Users on the rampage – this is how you undo it
Once again, Microsoft is attracting the wrath of Windows users. But there is a simple solution.
Forget about the Streaming rip-off! Buy prefer DVDs and Blu-rays – I will also tell you why is better
Our author thinks that streaming services like Netflix are useless compared to DVDs and Blu-rays. Here he explains why you should forget about streaming.
Nevertheless, I feel a little sad now that ICQ has closed its doors forever. I don't want to go back to the old days, but the Memories are dear and precious to me. And I am convinced that many people out there feel the same as I do. When did you last use ICQ? Do you still know your ICQ number? Feel free to write it to me in the Comments.