After AOL and MSN, Yahoo Messenger is shutting down soon

• Yahoo messenger to shut down on July 17.
• Users can still download there chat history for up to 6 months, on their devices.
  
• The Yahoo ID will still remain functional.

On 8 June, Oath Inc. a subsidiary of Verizon Communications announced that it would be winding up the Yahoo Messenger service in July 2017. The company hasn’t given specific dates yet, but with many instant messaging apps flooding the market, its decision is anything but surprising.

Yahoo was one of the first instant messaging service providers. Over the past 20 years the company has served millions of people. Given the dominance that Facebook’s WhatsApp and Messenger, Snapchat, WeChat and a number of others hold, Yahoo was struggling to find a relevant place in the market. Oath has also shut down AIM, AOL’s equivalent messaging app, in October last year.

Yahoo messenger first debuted in the PC market in 1998 at a time when pagers were popular. It was soon popularised as the messaging service which was not service provider specific and was a great tool.

Though the Yahoo Messenger is shutting down, a user’s Yahoo ID remains intact for other services like mail and fantasy sports.

So, what to do now?

The company said that they currently don't have a replacement product available for Yahoo Messenger, but are constantly experimenting with new services and apps. Recently, an invite-only group messaging app called 'Yahoo Squirrel' had been brought into beta.

Yahoo also has said that the users can download their chat history locally on their devices for the next six months, but they won’t be able to port chats to any other messaging service as of now.