ICQ closes its doors on June 26

ICQ, which was a very popular messaging app for a short time in the ’90s and early ’90s, has just a month left to join the other apps and software of old in the big farm of sky. It will stop working on June 26, according to him website, which also encourages users to switch to VK Messenger for casual chats and VK WorkSpace for professional conversations. ICQ appeared at a time when most people used IRC for chatting. IRC, however, was primarily intended for group conversations – ICQ made one-on-one communication easier.

Users who created an account were assigned a number that grew longer over time because it was assigned sequentially. The shortest numbers were five digits long, meaning the users who got them were there from the start. ICQ peaked in the early 2000s when it reached 100 million registered accounts. And while it didn’t take long for AIM, Yahoo Messenger, and MSN Messenger to eclipse their popularity, the iconic “uh-oh!” the sound of notifications remains memorable for many Internet users in this era.

ICQ, derived from the phrase “I’m looking for you”, was developed by the Israeli company Mirabilis. It was later bought by AOL and then by the Russian company Mail.Ru Group, now known as VK, which has its own social media and email services.