After Google, Yahoo came out to be the top search engine and email service used by internet users. Yahoo has proved to be useful for the users for both emailing and chatting and that’s why most of the internet users have set Yahoo as their homepage. One of its public chat services, Yahoo chat rooms were really popular some time back, however, things have changed now, let’s see what happened to yahoo chat rooms and if they are still available.
Introduction of Yahoo Chat Rooms
Yahoo Chat Rooms first came into existence on January 7, 1997, in the form of a public chat room service. It rapidly got so popular not only among Yahoo users but also attracted millions of people worldwide. So eventually, Yahoo Pager’s first public version was announced that had Yahoo chat as one of its features. Yahoo chat room has so many memories attached to it; kids back then were addicted to this online chat service and used to chat with people from different countries and nationalities.
Moving further to 1999, the chat room service was renamed Yahoo! Messenger, however, in 2012, Yahoo put a full stop to its chat room service for several undisclosed reasons. However, as per sources, the reason that came out to be Yahoo wanted to focus its sources on its future growth and even on certain products that are not getting proper attention but can prove fruitful in the future. Another reason behind taking this decision was Yahoo chat rooms were not receiving the required traffic due to the existence of similar chatting applications.
Journey of Yahoo Messenger
When Yahoo Chat Room came to an end, Yahoo came up with another messenger service in 2015 i.e. Yahoo Messenger that had all the features essential for a chat service and worked very well as a replacement of the chat room service. If we talk about the features that were there in Yahoo Messenger, everything was similar just like other instant messaging apps such as free text messages, images, emoticons, GIFs, and so on. It even offered the facility to undo the sent messages on messenger and chatting with a group of people. Yahoo Messenger was immensely loved by the chat room lovers and the features like VoIP, voicemail, video calling, Yahoo 360 integration, Flickr Support, ability to chat with Facebook friends as well as in-chat YouTube streaming made Yahoo Messenger stand out among others.
Have a look at the overview of the amazing features of Yahoo Messenger:
1. Undo Sent Messages
It is an important feature so that you can easily correct your mistakes made while chatting. And you would be happier to know that Yahoo Messenger offered this option just like the one you get with Whatsapp these days but Yahoo Messenger had this feature a long time back.
2. Send GIFs
Send interesting and fun GIFs to your family and friends to make the conversation more happening with Yahoo Messenger.
3. Compatibility
Yahoo Messenger can not only be used on your computers but is also compatible with multiple other gadgets available out there. This made it easier to access your chats on the go and made it more convenient.
4. Group Chats
Yahoo Messenger even allowed for chatting in groups. If you find people with the same interest, you can create a group and use it as a discussion forum. This feature can even help in managing your office work as you can create a group with your colleagues.
5. Offline Feature
It was a major problem for Yahoo Messengers to continue with the fun in the absence of an internet connection. So the offline features offered by Yahoo came out as icing on the cake as users were allowed to attach files even when they were offline.
Finally! The End of Yahoo Chat Room Era
In 2018, on July 17, Yahoo Messenger taken down completely. However, after some time, Yahoo came up with another service namely ‘Yahoo Together’ that was even taken down on 4th April 2019. After that, Yahoo didn’t offer any support or replacement for its chat room services.
Yahoo users were disappointed when they came to know about the discontinuation of its chat room service. Even if it came as a surprise to Yahoo users, it is common to take such an action by renowned companies like Yahoo to discontinue some of their unpopular services and focus their resources on those which can prove more beneficial to them in the future.
Every company will look for areas where there are more chances for growth rather than the ones that are not getting much acknowledgment. And that is what Yahoo did by putting an end to Yahoo chat room and messenger service to focus on other products and services.
Alternatives to Yahoo Chat Rooms
So if you are looking for something that can fill the void created by Yahoo Chat Rooms, here I recommend you using the Get assist Chat Room that offers free chatting service to its users.
If you are looking for instant messaging applications, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Viber, etc., are some of the reliable options.
