Yahoo Messenger to be officially shut down from 17 July onwards says parent company Oath

Long before there was WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram and Hangouts, there was **Yahoo Messenger** . Notice how we said ‘was’ as in the past tense. This is because Yahoo Messenger’s long race is run and the time for dismantling it has arrived. Reports have stated that Yahoo Messenger will be shut down by 17 July. [caption id=“attachment_4502871” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Yahoo Messenger icon.[/caption] Yahoo’s parent company Oath, which is the media subsidiary of Verizon says that over the last 20 years, Yahoo Messenger has been used by more than hundreds of millions of people. “There currently isn’t a replacement product available for Yahoo Messenger,” the company said to TechCrunch. However, there is still hope for the few of you who still use Yahoo Messenger. “We’re constantly experimenting with new services and apps, one of which is an invite-only group messaging app called Yahoo Squirrel (currently in beta).” the company said as per the report. Squirrel has been in beta testing for more than a month now and you can get an invite to access the app by clicking here. As per TechCrunch, the reason for shutting down Yahoo Messenger hasn’t been specified explicitly by the company but it can be assumed that it was because of the crowded instant messaging market. Though it was quite a hit in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, better and more sophisticated messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger quickly made Yahoo’s offering obsolete. The report also states that according to App Annie, among all social media apps Yahoo is actually ranked 160 on iOS and 117 on Android, proving again how far behind it is of its rivals. We shall have more on this story as it develops.