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AJCxZ0
2 months agoSilver Expert
Identity and instant messaging: ICQ, Skype, AOL/AIM, Yahoo, MSN
- ICQ: Retired 26 Jun 2024 in favour of VK Messenger
- Skype: Retired by Microsoft on 5 May 2025 in favour of Teams
- AIM: Retired 16 Dec 2017 by AOL
- Yahoo Messenger: Retired 18 Jul 2018 by Yahoo/Verizon.Oath/Yahoo as a favour to a squirrel
- MSN Messenger: Retired between and 15 Mar and 31 Oct 2014 by Microsoft to merge with Skype
This list of defunct (but historically interesting) services is the entire list of options provided in an Identity item.
While such instant messenger platforms no longer exist in their original form, some modern or current equivalents where an individual identity can be provided include (but are not limited to)
- Discord
- Google Chat (or Meet or whatever Google rebranded or replaced this week).
- IRC
- Matrix
- Microsoft Teams
- Signal (which has supported usernames since 20 Feb 2024)
- Snapchat
- Telegram Messenger
- Viber
- XMPP (Jabber)
Please consider this a feature request to replace these fields with options suitable for this century.
ICQ: AJCxZ0/283813972
AIM: AJCxZ0
Yahoo: AJ_Z0
MSN/Skype: Never
Hi AJCxZ0,
You made me feel ancient at first, but your listing IRC as something we should include won me back over π
You do make a good point, though. I'll flag this to the team!
ref: PB-51229925
2 Replies
- AJCxZ0Silver Expert
Thank you, 1P_SimonHβ.
For folks who ended up here but don't know, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), along with Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP), is based on Internet standards, much like email, Usenet, the web, and the Fediverse. It's not a "platform" or subject to the whims of any owner like those dead instant messengers, the not-yet-dead chat platforms I mentioned, or commercial social media. Consequently, anyone can and did create services based on these standards, frequently making them freely available for anyone to use. The good ones, including IRC, continue to evolve and be used decades later.
IRC: AJ_Z0 on Libera.chat, OFTC, EFnet, and elsewhere