RIP Yahoo Messenger. Any alternatives?

[Palinov Jensen]

On July 17, 2018, Yahoo Messenger will cease to exist. I am extremely heartbroken and scared. And I'm embarrassed to say, I actually shed tears!

Late 2014 I met a wonderful man online. I am still friends with him to this day. Our entire relationship was/is communicating through Yahoo Messenger. We are oceans apart from each other and have never met in real life, but our history and the memories we made and continue to make together are very real. Because of reasons, he's only ever been comfortable with us communicating through YM and now that it's disappearing, I don't know what's going to happen to us. I am very afraid! Because of the nature of the friendship (I can't go into detail for privacy reasons) I am 100% sure that we cannot communicate through Google+ or Facebook. Are there any good alternatives to Yahoo Messenger? I don't want to lose my friend.

The only thing I can think of is if he created a separate Google+ account for the sole purpose of us keeping in contact, but I'd have to talk to him about it first. I'm not sure if he's comfortable with that so, if you guys know if any YM alternatives, please let me know.

[Boggy Man]

Have you tried Googling Yahoo Messenger alternatives? There are many sites that come up that show various alternatives. For example, here is one site:

https://www.topbestalternatives.com/yahoo-messenger/

[Palinov Jensen]

Have you tried Googling Yahoo Messenger alternatives? There are many sites that come up that show various alternatives. For example, here is one site:

https://www.topbestalternatives.com/yahoo-messenger/

Thanks.

I didn't google that phrase exactly. I searched for instant messaging apps or something like that but didn't find what I wanted or the variety of alternatives that your link presented. I am worried about the life pan of some of those applications. I guess I shall discuss the alternatives with my friend when he gets back. We still have email for now. I'm still very sad. I have so many memories of him tied into Yahoo Messenger. I even remember the skull profile pic he had on the old messenger and the dragon pic I had...

[rhinodynamo]

I haven't used Yahoo Messenger (or the long-gone Chat) in ages. Have you considered Facebook and Facebook Messenger ?

[Palinov Jensen]

I haven't used Yahoo Messenger (or the long-gone Chat) in ages. Have you considered Facebook and Facebook Messenger ?

Due to the nature of our friendship and other reasons I can't get into, He's not comfortable with adding me on Facebook. He's made that very clear from the moment we met.

Side note: I've known him for 3 and a half years, we use to web cam with the old Yahoo Messenger, I did all of my research. Everything he's told me checks out. He is who he say he is. This isn't a catfish situation. It's just...for privacy reasons, I can't really go into why he won't add me to Facebook. One thing I can say is, he did tell me his picky about who he adds on there, which is understandable. But even though he and I have known each other for some time now, Facebook isn't an option, for reasons.

[rhinodynamo]

Ok. So now it gets challenging. Are you using Windows or Mac? On iOS and Mac there's WhatsApp Messenger. There's also a free texting service called Text Me-Phone Calls +. Here are some for Windows- https://www.getmailbird.com/best-commun ... indows-10/ . If I think of any others I'll let you know.

[Fred588]

I am speculating here but I suspect the issue is one of privacy. As I recall (vaguely) all things sent through YM went from the sender to YM and then YM to the recipient. That meant that the IP of every incoming message was Yahoo's IP. That would not protect the privacy of a sender from a police inquiry but it would from the prying eyes of ordinary people. So what you are looking for, I suspect, is something that does the same.

[Palinov Jensen]

Thank you, everyone, for the help! I'm still a sad, but I'll be okay, eventually. Change and uncertainty is hard to handle sometimes.

From the looks of it, Whatsapp seems like it will be the best program for us. It looks clean and simple, plus we can access it from our computers and phones. I will, of course, have to talk to my friend about transitioning to Whatsapp once he gets back from vacation. He might have something different in mind. I don't want to force the program upon him.

[BSink42]

Part of Skype has a messenger feature that's similar to other messengers and you don't have to pay to use it, I don't believe.

[Dethmetal]

Well, I would say that at present Telegram and Discord, as well as the aforementioned Skype, would be the best bets for messenger programs akin to Yahoo Messenger. A lesser known, and much older, messenger that is still going as well would be ICQ. Most of them at this point function as though they were meant for smart phones because,... well,... they were.

Of those I mentioned above Telegram seems to be the most user-friendly and simple to use, yet still has a lot of bells and whistles. Discord seems geared more towards voice and video chat, and is popular among online gamers for communicating while playing. Skype, in my opinion, is somewhat clunky to use, but that's just me. ICQ used to function much like the original versions of Yahoo Messenger, but now is more like Telegram, though not quite as streamlined. To anyone who has been using Yahoo Messenger in the past couple years any of these programs will function very similarly, and should do the job.

I took the liberty of including links to these various messenger programs for those who might be interested, enjoy.

https://telegram.org/
https://www.skype.com/en/
https://discordapp.com/
https://icq.com/windows/en