Skip to content
Category

Defunct instant messaging clients

page 1
ICQ
ICQ was a cross-platform instant messaging (IM) and VoIP client founded in June 1996 by Yair Goldfinger, Sefi Vigiser, Amnon Amir, Arik Vardi, and Arik's father, Yossi Vardi. The name ICQ derives from the English phrase "I Seek You". Originally developed by the Israeli company Mirabilis in 1996, the client was bought by AOL in 1998, and then by Mail.Ru Group (now VK) in 2010.
Windows Live Messenger
deprecated instant messaging client
Google Hangouts
communication software by Google
Google Allo
instant messaging app by Google
Yahoo! Messenger
instant messenging protocol
AOL Instant Messenger
instant messaging service
Empathy
open source instant messaging and VoIP client
aMSN
aMSN was a free Windows Live Messenger clone. aMSN attempted to emulate the look and feel of Windows Live Messenger, and supported many of its features. It had been downloaded approximately 40 million times as of January 2011, making it the 21st most downloaded project on SourceForge.
iChat
iChat (previously iChat AV) is a discontinued instant messaging software application developed by Apple for use on its Mac OS X operating system. It supported instant text messaging over XMPP/Jingle or OSCAR (AIM) protocol, audio and video calling, and screen-sharing capabilities. It also allowed for local network discussion with users discovered through Bonjour protocols.
meebo
Meebo (often stylized as meebo) was an instant messaging and social networking service provider. It was founded in September 2005 by Sandy Jen, Seth Sternberg, and Elaine Wherry, and was based in Mountain View, California. Initially the company offered a web-based instant messenger service, extending its offer in more general online chat and even social networking directions. In June 2012, Google acquired Meebo to merge the company's staff with the Google+ developers team.
Skype for Business
instant messaging client
BlackBerry Messenger
Instant messaging software
Xfire
Xfire was a proprietary freeware instant messaging service for gamers that also served as a game server browser with various other features. It was available for Microsoft Windows. Xfire was originally developed by Ultimate Arena based in Menlo Park, California.
Windows Messenger
instant messaging client
Quiet Internet Pager
third-party closed-source freeware multiprotocol IM client
Instantbird
Instantbird is a discontinued cross-platform instant messaging client based on Mozilla's XULRunner and the open-source library libpurple used in Pidgin. Instantbird is free software available under the GNU General Public License. Over 250 add-ons allow user customization of, and addition of, features. On October 18, 2017, Florian Quèze announced that "... we are stopping development of Instantbird as a standalone product."
Guilded
Guilded was a VoIP, instant messaging, and digital distribution platform designed by Guilded Inc. and was bought by Roblox Corporation on August 16, 2021 for $90 million. Since then, Guilded had been integrated with Roblox. The company was based in San Francisco. Users communicated with voice calls, video calls, text messaging, media and files in private chats or as part of communities called "servers". Guilded was founded by Eli Brown, a former Facebook and Xbox employee. Guilded was available on Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, and iOS. == Features == Guilded was a main competitor of Discord
Gizmo5
Gizmo5 (formerly known as Gizmo Project and SIPphone) was a voice over IP communications network and a proprietary freeware soft phone for that network. On November 12, 2009, Google announced that it had acquired Gizmo5. On March 4, 2011, Google announced that the service would be discontinued as of April 3, 2011.
ChatON
ChatON was a global mobile communication service provided by Samsung Electronics from September 2011 to March 2015.
FireChat
FireChat was a proprietary mobile app, developed by Open Garden, which used wireless mesh networking to enable smartphones to pass messages to each other peer-to-peer via Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or Apple's Multipeer, without an internet connection.
Hike
instant messaging app
ooVoo
ooVoo was a video chat and messaging app developed by ooVoo LLC and owned by Krush Technologies, LLC. ooVoo had applications for Android, iOS, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, Windows Phone, and Facebook. The original Microsoft Windows app was released in 2007. It was discontinued on November 25, 2017.
Mxit
Mxit (pronounced "mix it") was a free instant messaging application developed by Mxit (Pty) Ltd. in South Africa that ran on over 8,000 devices, including feature phones, Symbian S60, Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, iPad, Windows Phone and tablets. Lead by Alan Knott-Craig Jnr, Mxit had 7.4 million monthly active subscribers in July 2013, of which 6.3 million were South Africans.
Qik
video messaging service from Skype
Microsoft Kaizala
corporate mobile messaging (chat) app
Odigo Messenger
defunct social networking service