Remember those catchy “Uh oh!” alerts? After nearly three decades of service, ICQ, the pioneering instant messaging platform, is officially shutting down on June 26th, 2024.
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VK, the Russian company that acquired ICQ in 2010, announced the closure with a simple message on the ICQ website. They are encouraging users to migrate to VK Messenger for casual chats and VK Workplace for work-related communication.
ICQ, launched in 1996, stood out from its competitors like AOL Instant Messenger and MSN Messenger by using unique user IDs instead of usernames or email addresses. It also offered innovative features for its time, including SMS integration and offline messaging.
At its peak, ICQ boasted over 100 million registered users. After changing hands a few times (from Israeli company Mirabilis to AOL to Digital Sky Technologies, which later became VK), ICQ seems to have faded away in recent years. While the modern version offered similar functionality to popular apps like WhatsApp and Telegram, it’s no longer available on major app stores. Today’s announcement from VK simply makes the decline official.
