Saying Goodbye to ICQ !
With ICQ shutting down on June 26, 2024, I can’t help but feel nostalgic. Remember your old ICQ UIN? I tried to find mine but no luck. How about you? Do you remember yours?
ICQ was the first messaging software I truly loved and the one that got me into the messaging industry. I still hear its distinctive message notification sound. Back when most users were on dial-up, ICQ’s presence feature was a game changer.
Created by Mirabilis in 1996, ICQ was a trailblazer, soon followed by competitors like Yahoo and Microsoft. As an XMPP developer, this moment highlights the value of open standards. Jabber, which evolved into XMPP, was born to centralize all messengers through gateways. Unlike proprietary systems, XMPP offers a decentralized and flexible framework that gives users more control and fosters innovation.
This is the end of an era. ICQ lasted 27 years. IRC (Internet Relay Chat), an open protocol, outlived it. So, let’s celebrate and gather in 2026 when XMPP will have lived longer than ICQ. The future is open and federated!