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ICQ will stop working from June 26

icq.com

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Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#113
post #14

This makes me sad. I mean, I haven't logged in in about 20 years now, and couldn't if I wanted to (don't have the password or access to the email address). But I had a low five digit user number, and built a lot of relationships on ICQ (some of which continue today!). It was my main method of electronic communication in college. I had romantic relationships live and die on ICQ. Another reminder of how things change o…

I have similar sentimental memories of ICQ.

One highlight was being able to connect to it from my phone for the first time; first on my first smartphone (Symbian), then from my "non-smart" Sony Ericsson that succeeded it, via some Java Jabber client and a Jabber-to-ICQ bridge! (Unfortunately nobody else that I knew had it on their phones, so I could only reach people in front of their PCs at home.)

On the other hand, it is and always has been unencrypted (not counting the OTR OTT encryption layer I've been using on it with the few friends that were also on Pidgin or Adium :), didn't support offline messages or even being logged in on more than one client, and was entirely proprietary (not sure if it was part of the "chat wars" [1] too).

Ultimately, the only constant in life is change. Instant messaging is alive and well on other platforms and networks today, let's remember ICQ fondly and be happy that we have so many good alternatives :)

[1] https://www.nplusonemag.com/issue-19/essays/chat-wars/

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#115

Hasn't it not actually been ICQ for a while now? I thought the original service with the numbers (387175) was shut down and replaced with something else entirely at some point.

I believe you're right on this. The original ICQ number accounts got merged into AOL Instant Messenger, and for a while you could log into AIM with your ICQ number. I think the original ICQ died when AIM got shut down.

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#116
post #14

This makes me sad. I mean, I haven't logged in in about 20 years now, and couldn't if I wanted to (don't have the password or access to the email address). But I had a low five digit user number, and built a lot of relationships on ICQ (some of which continue today!). It was my main method of electronic communication in college. I had romantic relationships live and die on ICQ. Another reminder of how things change o…

4125222

I still remember it but not the pass

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#117

Hasn't it not actually been ICQ for a while now? I thought the original service with the numbers (387175) was shut down and replaced with something else entirely at some point.

i was able to sign in with my number and password just now, had to click link in the upper left to get around the phone number request

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#118
post #45

1303789 Serious question - why do so many people remember our ICQ numbers? I don’t remember what user-facing function it served. Was that actually the identifier we shared with people to connect? I suppose it also came at a time for a lot of us where things seemed to wedge into our brains more easily.

831364 but suffered an account takeover. ICQ shutting down mildly eases this long torment of losing the 6-digit account.

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#119

IRC will never die

A few weeks ago I shut down my self hosted znc bouncer that I still logged in every few weeks to download logs, see if I got pinged somewhere and catch up with some low traffic channels.

I then switched over to https://www.irccloud.com and it's such a improvement as I can use it on my phone, now I'm pretty active again and I kinda missed it.

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