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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

#401

Post by fragmede »

nogridbag wrote: post #300
jedberg wrote: 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 just logged in for the first time in over 25 years a few weeks ago. I found https://web.icq.com/ which does not require an email address: only the ID and password. And back then I used a single password for everything. And it worked! All my old online friends from my childhood were there, my profile message, etc. While most were offline, a few showed up as online and I quickly messaged them! But my excitement died…

I logged in (how the hell did I remember the ID and password‽) but all my contacts except 1 that I don't remember are gone.

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#402

Post by ihaveajob »

sedatk wrote: post #375
richarme wrote: post #322

Good memories from a more innocent time. The ICQ client truncated long filenames in the UI, so you could send "image.jpg (50 spaces) .exe" which would open an embedded picture and install a back-door while just seeming like regular picture. I do miss casually texting with people on the computer rather than the phone, and I don't think it's only due to nostalgia or having more leisure time back then: - If someone was…

ICQ even had a realtime chat feature that showed keystrokes as they were typed.

That was my favorite feature. And the random match part, way earlier than ChatRoulette. I remember talking to some kid in the Philippines about the history of her country and mine (Spain). Mind-blowing at the time.

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#404

Post by yatz »

jedberg wrote: 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…

Oh my, I did not know it still existed. My very first romantic connection was made on ICQ and then MSN Messenger. Can't believe how fast time flies!

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#407

Post by miscellanemone »

galdosdi wrote: post #389
dark-star wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember the phone number of my great aunt who lived in East Germany. It was a 12-digit number (including country code). We called her once, maybe twice a year, and usually my mother was dialling. I was maybe around 8 or 9 at the time (it was around 1988). I cannot even remember the birthdays of people close to me, let alone any phone numbers except my own. But I still remember that f*king 12-digit international ph…

I still remember the phone number of this girl I wanted to date in high school, 867-5309

I tried to call but lost my nerve.

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#408

Post by knorker »

lxgr wrote: post #267
toast0 wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> didn't support offline messages ICQ did support offline messages, from the beginning afaik, too. I had a 6-digit uin (485358 or something similar), until it got banned for running a bot (whoops). To the sibling reply, I think AIM and ICQ did have interop on messages at some point, it was much later than when ICQ moved protocols to OSCAR and TOK though.

Oh, did I mix it up with MSN then, or maybe early Skype? Or did this possibly happen after the OSCAR migration? I vividly remember being amazed by offline delivery in Jabber, so at least one of ICQ or MSN must have not had it for me to even notice.

It was MSN. I remember when MSN arrived late to the game, and managed to get users anyway, despite not having such an obvious feature, that the incumbent had.

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#409

Post by adamomada »

jedberg wrote: 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…

> It was my main method of electronic communication in college

Same, it caught on like wildfire and everyone in my class, program and perhaps everyone with a computer in school used it. Network effect in action

This is from a time where you had to find an Ethernet drop to plug your laptop in to be available on ICQ

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#410

Post by lxgr »

sumtechguy wrote: post #324
xp84 wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Circa 2000 or so, when AIM, MSN, Yahoo! and ICQ were all flourishing, Yahoo had already added offline messages. ICQ, I think also had them, though it was probably configurable, I recall the client having a half dozen screens of options. At that moment, neither MSN nor AIM had it yet. AIM eventually did add it, though I don't recall if it was added to AIM after ICQ de-merged from the AIM backend.

Then something like trillian to glue them all together.

There was also Meebo, which allowed you to login to all of them via a web interface (which I believe none of the messengers had natively) without installing the respective clients!
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