Instant messaging app Yahoo Messenger dates back to 1998 when Yahoo released chat room for the public. Yahoo public chat rooms were released at that time, and yahoo messenger was released a year later. Since then, they operated the public rooms and chat service, and Yahoo messenger was one of the first messaging apps on the market, and users loved it. Over the last years, hundreds of millions of people have used messenger.
But the users started declining over time, and it wasn’t viable for them to keep spending millions of dollars on a service that was not yielding anything. The new products started popping up on the market with better UI and features. They closed their chat rooms in 2012, and a few years later, they rebranded the messenger and released a new version.
Yahoo decided to revive the service as it was one of the most successful offerings from Yahoo. They released a new version of Yahoo Messenger in 2015 to replace the older version. The newer version of messenger had many features, but it was not as successful as the older one was. People didn’t get on with the new product as there were better offerings available in the market. Ultimately, they had to shut down its service entirely in 2018 and replaced it with another service called Yahoo Together.
So, this time Yahoo messenger went away for good and wasn’t coming back.
Re-release
When they re-released the product in 2015, they didn’t account for other messaging services such as Google Talk, Facebook, and WhatsApp. The dominance of these services was such that Yahoo messenger never got the attention of enough people. Despite significant blows to its service, they did try to revive it several times by updating the Android and iOS apps along with the web version. But it failed to make a mark on the audience as other apps with compelling features came into the market.
So, Oath, the parent company of Yahoo decided to shut down the Yahoo messenger in the coming months. They pulled the plug on Yahoo messenger in July 2018, and since then, it is no longer available. Users were able to download the chats before the deadline.
Once Yahoo Messenger was closed completely, they decided to release another program called Yahoo together.
Yahoo Together
It was a cross-platform messaging service developed by the Yahoo team for android and iOS devices. It was targeted to the consumer and family audiences rather than enterprises. They promoted the product extensively and tried to get the loyal Yahoo supporters. But it wasn’t meant to be, and just a year into the release, they pulled the plug on Yahoo Together as well.
Since April 2019, Yahoo has no mobile messaging app after the closure of Yahoo Together. The app was compared to Slack but couldn’t get the traction among families as the Facebook messenger, and WhatsApp dominated the market.
Future
Well, the future of Yahoo messenger chat (or what they name it) is not too bright. Because the parent company of Yahoo has no interest in developing a failed product once again. If they can come up with the idea that is better than the existing dominating players in the market, then maybe the public rally behind the team. But until then, we can only say to Yahoo lovers to stay hopeful.
We know Yahoo had many loyal users who used Yahoo messenger from the beginning, as it was one of the first chat apps available out there. But the communications landscapes continue to change over, and they are trying to build new and exciting tools that better fit the needs of the people.
Oath (a subsidiary of Verizon), owns yahoo and they are in the middle of the big organizational and strategic shift. So, it is highly unlikely that we will see the revival of Yahoo messenger. They have divested many products to keep the debt to a minimum. The debt was piling up on the company, and they had to make some smart decisions to invest in tech to keep them afloat.
If you wish to read more on the topic, go to getassist.net and read about it. You’ll find some useful articles on that website on Yahoo and its products.
