Yahoo Messenger shuts down: The story of first real global messaging app

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Yahoo!, a web service provider owned by Oath, on July 17 pulled the plug on its internet-based instant messaging service the Yahoo! Messenger, putting it to rest after a long run of around 20 years. Launched by the Stanford graduates Jerry Yang and David Filo in 1998, the Yahoo Messenger became the most used service of its time as it provided an alternative solution to time-consuming email and costly short message services (SMS).

In 2009, Yahoo! Messenger had more than 122.6 million users on its platform. However, with the inception of smartphones and mobile devices, the app-based instant-messaging platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger took over; making early messaging platforms such as MSN messenger and AOL quit the game, now followed by Yahoo! Messenger.


Stickers on photos and animated emoticons aka emojis have only restarted surfacing on most popular instant messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, WhatApp, etc. However, Yahoo! Messenger had it even when the smartphones were not there, leave alone the apps. Interestingly, the messenger also had India-specific emojis and stickers that made it quite popular in India.

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