There was a time when ICQ—that is “I Search You”—was as ubiquitous as mIRC and a great FTP program. However after almost three many years of operation (a lot of it, I am sorry to say, in obscurity), the tip has lastly come: A message posted on the ICQ web site (through PCMag) says the software program will cease working on June 26.
It is onerous to overstate simply how large ICQ was on the flip of the millennium. It was launched by Israeli developer Mirabilis in late 1996; I got here to it in ’97 by the use of an in-the-know good friend who breathlessly regaled me with tales of this thrilling new program that permit us discuss to on-line mates anyplace, at any time—no extra having to attend to your friends to indicate up on Undernet! Consider me, this was big.
At one level ICQ had greater than 100 million registered customers, nevertheless it did not take lengthy for different firms to get in on the IM motion, resulting in ICQ’s sluggish decline. AOL, which had acquired Mirabilis in 1998, bought it to Russian firm Digital Sky Applied sciences—regardless of its decline within the West, ICQ remained well-liked in Russia—in 2010, at a major loss.
A brand new model of this system was launched in 2020, nevertheless it’s been uncared for since; a Techspot report says the final steady desktop launch arrived in April 2023, whereas the cell variations have been retired in favor of present proprietor VK’s personal messenger system.
I have never used ICQ in lots of, a few years, besides I retain a comfortable spot for it. I not solely keep in mind my consumer identification quantity—1302192—I nonetheless have it. Technically, anyway: I stay within the ICQ consumer database, however the password (and the restoration e-mail connected to it) are lengthy gone.
It is me!
That makes the second just a little unhappy. ICQ had been out of my life for years—many years, even—however I at all times knew at the back of my thoughts that it was nonetheless on the market, quietly thrumming away, doing its factor, a small island of software program stability in an amazing black sea of lifeless and forgotten software program. I even sometimes imagined that I’d at some point get up from a deep sleep and holy cow, I keep in mind my password! And I’d log again in, one final time, to take a look at all these mates from so way back.
Hell, I might even fireplace off a message. Possibly somebody would hear it.
The tip for ICQ got here not with a bang, however a whimper: A easy, two-line message at icq.com states, “ICQ will cease working from June 26. You possibly can chat with mates in VK Messenger, and colleagues in VK WorkSpace.” Not the sendoff it deserved by any measure, however I do take some small consolation in understanding that at the very least it is not moving into NFTs.
Farewell, outdated good friend. We had some good occasions.