R.I.P Yahoo Messenger Desktop: Looking back to the true messaging app

The desktop legacy version of Yahoo Messenger will be shut down after its 18 years of service on the 5th of August 2016. As we bid farewell to the best desktop messaging platform that existed even before the likes of Orkut, GTalk, WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, we take a closer look at the reason why this messaging service drove us so crazy.

Mail Notifications

Yahoo Mail was included into the service, and apart from a Hotmail email address, people always created one on Yahoo Mail too. When you're busy chatting with your friends, you could directly go to your mailbox right within the chat. This was the beginning of multitasking.

Emojis

The craze for emojis began with Yahoo Messenger. And you cannot deny that fact. Where Hotmail Messenger was more of a platform for official purposes, people always used Yahoo's messaging service for the best social messaging experience.

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First for social video chats

Unlike today's trend where we use either Skype or FaceTime or even the video chat option in Facebook, Yahoo Messenger began truly bringing people together in front of the webcam. The desktop client was also had the ability to place voice calls with all your friends. Group chats were more fun when using the emojis and expressions.

Avatars

Among the various features that the messaging service provided creating your custom avatars was the coolest. It wasn't as lively as the ones on Xbox profiles, but definitely brought about a lot of imagination. You could change the background to a school or a garden, and dress your avatar with a school bag and shades.

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Colorful themes

Now we're not talking about the singular colors that we can select in Facebook Messenger. But these were fully custom themes that changed the background of the chat to suit your own tastes.