After nearly three decades, ICQ will be shutting down

If you were young/old enough to have a computer with an internet connection back in the 1990s, there’s a good chance that you might have heard of the ICQ instant messenger. The app has surprisingly managed to survive all these years, but their journey has come to an end as ICQ will be shutting down next month.

An announcement on the company’s website has revealed that the platform will cease to operate on the 26th of June. ICQ, for those who are too young to know, was an instant messenger app from the 1990s. Back in the day, there weren’t many instant messengers around and ICQ was one of the few, along with platforms like MSN Messenger, AIM, and mIRC.

ICQ was initially owned by AOL but was later sold to the Mail.ru Group in 2010. The popularity of ICQ declined over the years. More so with the launch of smartphones where the platform failed to keep up with the times. But the fact that it lasted as long as it did is still pretty impressive.

We’re not sure how many users will be affected by the shutting down of ICQ. The website says that users can keep chatting with their friends via the VK Messenger app. In any case, it does feel like the end of an era. So, how many of you are old enough to remember ICQ?