雅虎通（Yahoo Messenger）已時日無多。

雅虎于6月8日宣布，這個誕生于20年前的即時通訊工具將在7月17日關閉。

雅虎公司稱，雖然即時通有“很多忠實粉絲”，公司仍然決定放棄，用“能夠更好滿足用戶需求”的新通訊工具取而代之。

雖然目前還沒有替代產品，但雅虎公司稱正在測試新的聊天工具，比如Yahoo Squirrel。然而，Yahoo Squirrel目前尚無法廣泛下載。

如果想保存在雅虎通上的聊天記錄，可以訪問指定網站下載，但該服務時限僅為六個月。六個月后，用戶將無法訪問歷史檔案。

雅虎通1998年首次面世時，聊天工具才剛剛興起。但是近年來，隨著Facebook Messenger、WhatsApp等新型聊天軟件的流行，雅虎通已經式微。

2017年，美國在線（AOL）關停了面世20年的即時通訊軟件AIM，或許是因為用戶習慣變了，更熱衷于谷歌、Facebook等公司提供的新聊天工具。

2015年，雅虎推出了新版即時通，公司稱將于2016年停止舊版本的運營，強烈要求人們改用新版。

現在雅虎又決定要關停這個修訂版，看來新版本一直表現平平，始終沒能像1990年代的老版雅虎通一樣大受歡迎。

去年夏天，通訊巨頭威瑞森（Verizon）以45億美元收購雅虎。作為交易的一部分，威瑞森合并了雅虎和AOL，組建了新媒體集團Oath。（財富中文網）

翻譯：Agatha?

Yahoo Messenger’s days are numbered.

Yahoo said on June 8 that it would pull the plug on the 20-year-old messaging service on July 17.

The company said that while the service has “many loyal fans,” it will abandon the chat app in favor of newer messaging tools “that better fit consumer needs.”

Currently, Yahoo has no replacement for Yahoo Messenger, but it said it is testing new chat apps, like its Yahoo Squirrel. However, that app is not widely available.

People who want an archive of their Yahoo Messaging texts can visit a special website where they can download a history of their messages, but they only have six months to do so. After that, they will be unable to access the archive.

When Yahoo Messenger debuted in 1998, chatting services were just emerging. But over the years new chatting services like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp eclipsed Yahoo Messenger in popularity.

In 2017, AOL shut down its Instant Messenger (AIM) after a 20-year run, likely due to changing consumer habits that favored newer chatting services from Google, Facebook, and others.

Yahoo built a new version of Yahoo Messenger in 2015 and urged people to switch to the new version in 2016 because it would stop supporting the older version.

Considering that Yahoo has decided kill the revamped Yahoo Messenger, it’s likely that it never caught on with like the older version did in the 1990s.

Last summer, telecommunications giant Verizon closed its $4.5 billion acquisition of Yahoo. As part of the deal, Verizon merged Yahoo with AOL to form the new media conglomerate Oath.