ICQ instant messaging service to shut down after 28 years
What's the story
Russian company VK, which has managed the once-popular instant messaging service ICQ since 2010, has announced that "ICQ will stop working from June 26." The company is urging users to transition to its other chat platforms. As per its Wikipedia page, ICQ had about 11 million monthly users in 2022. Launched in 1996 by Israeli firm Mirabilis, ICQ was among the first services that facilitated real-time chats.
Service evolution
Unique features and ownership history
Unlike contemporaries such as AOL Instant Messenger or MSN Messenger, ICQ assigned users a unique number for connecting, instead of using aliases or email addresses. It also offered features like SMS messaging and the ability to message offline users. In 1998, Mirabilis sold ICQ to AOL, which later sold it to Digital Sky Technologies in 2010, the firm owning VK.
User base
ICQ's popularity and recent inactivity
Under AOL, ICQ grew to boast 100 million registered users according to a 2001 release from Time Warner, which had acquired AOL in a merger a year prior. The modern version of ICQ functioned similarly to other popular messenger apps like WhatsApp or Telegram. However, recent observations suggest that the app has been absent from both Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store for several months.