Yahoo announced Friday, June 10, that it will be ending its old Messenger desktop client on August 5 in order to focus its efforts on the application's new version.
Called the "legacy" Yahoo Messenger, it will be replaced by a newer platform that works on smartphones and the Web.
Furthermore, the company will be discontinuing its Yahoo Recommends feature beginning September 1.
Shifting Efforts
As of writing, downloads of the legacy Yahoo Messenger are no longer available. After August 5, users will not be able to access, log in or send messages on the old version or any third-party clients.
In December 2015, the company announced a brand new Yahoo Messenger for mobile and Yahoo Mail on desktop. The new Yahoo Messenger is supported by iOS and Android.
Although Yahoo tried to provide basic interoperation between its legacy platform and the new Messenger, the company urges users to transfer to the new version.
"We intend to continue our focused efforts on the new Messenger," Yahoo posted on Tumblr. Their goal is to deliver the best service to users.
Yahoo Messenger Through The Years
Yahoo Messenger was launched in the late 1990s when the company's logo was still a classic serif "Y."
For many years, Yahoo Messenger was only available through the desktop version for Mac, Windows and Linux.
In the early 2000s, the application became extremely popular, competing for the top instant messaging client spot against Skype and Microsoft's Windows Live Messenger.
However, the popularity of Yahoo Messenger died down as newer services emerged, such as Facebook's chat feature, which is now known as Facebook Messenger, Twitter's Direct Messaging feature, and the slew of mobile apps that came after.
Yahoo failed to adapt to the changes. As a result, Yahoo Messenger lost most of its users. By April 12 this year, the company stopped offering the desktop app download for Yahoo Messenger.
Restore To Former Glory?
In order to regain its place in the IM market, Yahoo revamped its Messenger by making the service faster, as well as allowing it to support text messages, animated GIFs and photos.
The new Messenger platform also allows users to delete past messages through an "unsend" feature. It also supports group conversations.
Legacy Messenger is not included in Yahoo's seven core consumer products: Mail, Tumblr, Search, Sports, News, Lifestyle and Finance.
Yahoo will also be discontinuing its Yahoo Recommends feature in September in order to streamline and simplify products for the company's publisher community. The announcements come as Yahoo executives rethink and review strategic options to save the ailing internet giant.
