Identity and instant messaging: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo!, Skype, Google Talk

[AJCxZ0]

Having just signed up, I visited my new Account details page and was offered fields to fill in my "Identities":

AIM: Retired 16 Dec 2017 by AOL
ICQ: Retired 26 Jun 2024 in favour of VK Messenger
Yahoo! Messenger: Retired 18 Jul 2018 by Yahoo/Verizon.Oath/Yahoo as a favour to a squirrel
Skype: Retired by Microsoft on 5 May 2025 in favour of Teams
Google Talk: Retired by Google on 16 Jun 2022 in favour of Hangouts
Facebook: Not retired yet
Twitter: Renamed to X on 17 May 2024, but not retired yet

While these instant messenger platforms no longer exist in their original form, some modern or current equivalents where an individual identity can be provided include (but are not limited to)

Discord
Google Chat (or Meet or whatever Google rebranded or replaced this week).
IRC
Matrix
Microsoft Teams
Signal (which has supported usernames since 20 Feb 2024)
Snapchat
Telegram Messenger
Viber
WeChat
WhatsApp
XMPP (Jabber)

Since social media platforms are included, add

Bluesky
Lemmy
Loops
Mastodon
Mbin
Peertube
Pixelfed
Pleroma

For the record, I was

AIM: AJCxZ0
ICQ: AJCxZ0/283813972
Yahoo! Messenger: AJ_Z0
Skype: Never
Google Talk: AJCxZ0
Facebook: Never
Twitter: Never

 

[atax1a]

we miss AIM, not gonna lie.

 

[MG]

So, who's the supervisor? Matrix? I don't like these assimilation tactics at all.

 

[lgrant]

Wow! I didn't realize that ICQ was only retired in 2024. My wife and I used to use it a lot in the early 2000s, but somehow moved away from it. I thought it was retired long ago.