Back in the “Stone Age” of the Internet (i.e. before Facebook came along) Yahoo Messenger and AOL Messenger were used on a daily basis by millions of users to keep in touch with friends and family.
Well, times have changed…
AOL Messenger was shut down last year, leaving only Yahoo Messenger to compete with Facebook’s hugely popular Messenger app.
As of today that competition is officially over because Yahoo has just announced they’ll shutting down the entire Yahoo Messenger platform on July 17, 2018.
After that date you’ll no longer be able to sign into Yahoo Messenger or access any existing chat sessions or shared photos from within the Messenger app.
However, Yahoo has scheduled a six month window during which you can download your data from their server to your local computer. Just follow the steps below to initiate the download:
1 – Click here to visit Yahoo’s Downloader Request site.
2 – Sign in to your Yahoo account.
3 – Select a verification method, then enter the Account Key that Yahoo sends to you.
4 – Click Download.
5 – Enter the email address you want the download file to be sent to, then click OK.
6 – Retrieve the download file from your email inbox (it might take some time for the file to arrive).
This move by Yahoo is just the latest example of the changes the massive dominance of Facebook is forcing on the tech community, and it surely won’t be the last.
Bonus tip #1: Did you know that the popular photo sharing service Flickr is no longer owned by Yahoo?
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