Yahoo Messenger is one of the most widely used Instant Messaging clients in the world but with a large install base comes a large set of problems, one of them being that many users don't update to the latest version as soon as it is available so backwards compatibility and interoperability is a main concern. However, at some point users will have to be 'convinced' to upgrade and this is what Yahoo is doing as it has announced the 'retirement' of the old Yahoo Messenger versions 6.0 through 7.5.

“As Yahoo! Messenger gets older so too do some of the “vintage” versions that are still in use by some users. In an effort to provide the best experience for our users and maintain high security standards, we will officially retire Yahoo! Messenger versions 6.0 through 7.5,” announced Yahoo.

The official retirement date is set for August 2009, after which only Yahoo Messenger 8.0 and above will be supported. People still using the old versions will be notified of the retirement inside the application and after the date limit they will not be able to sign in and use the service with those clients.

Yahoo offers several options for those affected. The most obvious one is to upgrade to the latest version of Yahoo Messenger, 9.0.0.2162 at the time of writing, available right here on Softpedia. The latest version of the IM client offers enhanced security as well as some advanced features like voice calling and the possibility to chat with friends using the Windows Live Messenger.

If upgrading to Yahoo Messenger 9 isn't an option, you can always use the web client available at webmessenger.yahoo.com, which has the advantage of being platform-agnostic, requiring only a browser. The web client offers some benefits too, a useful one being the ability to access your message history from anywhere. And if you still aren't satisfied you could also use the built IM client in Yahoo! Mail, also available for users of Yahoo! Mail Classic.