In terms of privacy features, parents can create a passcode to lock the settings. And with permission for the device to access the camera, it's possible to send photos, videos, stickers and emojis. Features in chats include being able to send texts with a voice-to-text feature and an option to create a poll to survey other participants. It's possible for up to 30 members to chat simultaneously on the app. There is even a little COVID-19 humor, as filters include wearing face masks and being able to open your mouth and watch as green "germs" fill the screen. While chatting, ICQ includes access to over 90 different filters or face masks, like transforming into a kitty astronaut and many others. Users can also create a nickname to use when chatting instead of using their real name. A phone number is required to log into the app, but devices - even iPads without cellular capabilities - are able to connect over WIFI. Those expecting an experience similar to what the original desktop app delivered will likely be disappointed as the current version has much more in common with modern chat apps than vintage instant messaging clients.ICQ NEW: MESSENGER & CHAT is an app that offers a free way for users to text and video chat. But for the curious among us, the app is still being actively developed and it's cross-platform and available for most major operating systems. Most probably wouldn't mistake ICQ as a pillar of privacy considering it is owned and operated by VK, the Russian Internet services group formerly known as Group. Downloads of ICQ jumped 35-fold in that week of 2021, surpassing the total number of downloads during the entire fourth quarter of 2020. In early 2021 when WhatsApp updated its privacy policy, several users in Hong Kong ditched the Facebook-owned app in favor of a trip down memory lane. If you're interested in reconnecting with old contacts or want to discover it for the first time, ICQ is available to download for Windows and Mac as well as Android and iOS mobile devices. Sure, it's not nearly as popular as it once was but it's still around and that's more than most of its early competitors can say. The core functionality - the ability to chat with friends and family - remains.Īccording to, the instant messaging platform is used by 11 million people worldwide each month. Today's ICQ is a far cry from the basic UI of yesteryear, with a modern design and familiar features like secure video calls and stickers. The latest stable release in desktop was this month (as of February 2022), version 1, while Android and iOS apps have also been recently updated. Some may be surprised to learn that ICQ is still around and is being actively developed. AOL must have saw the writing on the wall as it offloaded ICQ to Russian investment firm Digital Sky Technologies (later known as Group, now VK) in 2010 for $187.5 million. The coming decade would again reinvent personal communication, driving conversations from mouse and keyboard to mobile devices. Contingency payments that started in fiscal 2001 reportedly totaled an additional $120 million, pushing the total value of the deal over $400 million.Īmerica Online would manage to grow ICQ's user base tenfold over the next three years, surpassing more than 100 million registered users by the spring of 2001. ICQ's success also captivated potential suitors, prompting AOL to ink a check to the tune of $287 million for the entirety of Mirabilis' assets in 1998. ![]() Mirabilis enjoyed first-mover advantage, attracting millions of early Internet users enticed by the proposition of chatting with friends and family in real-time. This number (I somehow still remember mine by heart some 20 years later), along with custom handles and an attached email address, were used to search for other users on the platform. ![]() Users were issued a unique User Identification Number, or UIN, upon registration. ICQ offered a number of innovative features including multi-user chat, async offline messaging, resumable file transfers and a searchable directory. Incredibly enough, ICQ has also outlasted its chief competitors: AIM shut down at the end of 2017, Yahoo's communications program bit the bullet in mid-2018 and Microsoft laid its Messenger client to rest in 2014. Launched after less than two months of development from Israeli company Mirabilis, it predated and influenced many of the popular chat programs of the era including AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger. Microsoft's trailblazing Windows 95 was barely a year old, Nintendo had just introduced the N64, and those with a reason to have a cell phone actually used it to talk on. ![]() ICQ, short for the phrase "I Seek You," laid the groundwork for standalone instant messaging clients when it arrived in November 1996.
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