14 DAY TRIAL // It's time to say goodbye to an icon, the Yahoo Messenger instant messaging client from Yahoo!, which a generation used on a daily basis to communicate with friends, family, and co-workers for more than a decade.
Yahoo recently announced that it would officially discontinue the Yahoo Messenger app and service beginning July 17, 2018. Users will have a little over a moment to use the service, which will no longer be supported after July 17, which means they won't have access to their chats as Yahoo Messenger ceases to work.
"Yahoo Messenger will no longer be supported after July 17, 2018. Until then, you can continue to use the service normally. After July 17, you'll no longer be able to access your chats and the service will no longer work. Read our FAQs below for more info on what this means for you," reads the support page.
Since you won't be able to access your chats after July 17, 2018, Yahoo will allow you to download all your existing chat history on your PC during the next 6 months. To download your chats, go to the downloader request site, sign in with your Yahoo ID, select a verification method, and download the archive to an email address.
Meet Yahoo Squirrel
Yahoo said that its fossil Yahoo Messenger client is going away because it no longer meets the needs of today's consumers, and because the communications landscape has evolved a lot since Yahoo Messenger was first introduced. They are now focusing their efforts on creating new and exciting communication tools.
That's why they are introducing a new product called Yahoo Squirrel, which isn’t a replacement for Yahoo Messenger, but an experimental messaging and communication service and app that promises to compete with Facebook Messenger, Google Hangouts, and Microsoft Skype.
Available only as an invite-only beta, Yahoo Squirrel promises to be an organized group messaging app for Apple's iOS (works with iPhone and iPad) and Google's Android mobile ecosystems. Unfortunately, there's no telling when Yahoo Squirrel will be released for everyone to replace Yahoo Messenger.