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Yes—ICQ is dead. The messaging service officially stopped working on June 26, 2024, after its owner, VK, announced the shutdown the month before. VK directed personal users to VK Messenger and businesses to VK WorkSpace; the available sources do not establish that old ICQ accounts, contacts, or chats can be transferred.
When did ICQ shut down?
VK announced on May 24, 2024, that ICQ would stop working on June 26. The service ended on that date. ICQ’s official endpoint confirmed that it had stopped working, rather than announcing a temporary outage. ICQ’s official site · Hi-Tech Mail · ITmedia
What happened to ICQ?
ICQ began as a messaging service created by Israeli startup Mirabilis in 1996. AOL acquired Mirabilis and ICQ in 1998. Digital Sky Technologies bought ICQ from AOL in 2010; following DST’s reorganization, ICQ became part of Mail.ru Group, now VK. Mail.ru Group relaunched the service as ICQ New in 2020, repositioning it around group communication. ITmedia · Hi-Tech Mail
At its peak, ICQ had 100 million users, according to ITmedia’s 2024 report. That historical peak helps explain why its shutdown resonated with people who first used the internet in the early days of instant messaging; it is not a measure of the service’s user base near its closure. ITmedia
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Why was ICQ discontinued?
VK’s stated reason was that it would concentrate on VK Messenger and VK WorkSpace. The company said ICQ employees would join those teams. The announcement did not provide a separate, quantified business rationale, so claims that a specific decline in users or revenue caused the closure are not established by the cited coverage. Hi-Tech Mail · ITmedia
What replaced ICQ?
VK recommended different services depending on how people used ICQ:
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- Personal messaging: VK pointed users to VK Messenger.
- Work communication: VK directed corporate users to VK WorkSpace.
VK Messenger had an average of 72.9 million monthly users in Russia in the first quarter of 2024, according to VK figures reported by Hi-Tech Mail. This is a Russia-specific figure from before ICQ’s shutdown—not a worldwide count or a post-closure total. Hi-Tech Mail
Those were VK’s recommended successors, not evidence of a direct ICQ-to-VK migration. The available sources do not establish that ICQ accounts, UINs, contacts, or message histories were imported into either service. If choosing a different messenger, check that it is available where you live and compare its privacy and encryption practices, account portability, group features, calls, and file sharing.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsCan you still use ICQ or recover an old account or chat?
No: ICQ stopped working on June 26, 2024. The official endpoint confirms the service’s closure, but the sources do not document a supported process for recovering an account or exporting chat history. There is no established recovery route for old UINs, contacts, or message archives, so do not assume they can be restored through VK Messenger or VK WorkSpace. ICQ official site
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