# Alternatives to Yahoo Messenger Yahoo's veteran chat. Yahoo Messenger has been discontinued; the active alternatives listed here are maintained products you can switch to. None of its 12 checklist rows are verified yet. Source: https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/yahoo-messenger/ Category: Personal messaging ## Overview - **Who it's for**: Yahoo account holders who wanted free real-time text chat with friends and family online, particularly during the late 1990s through 2010s before smartphone messaging apps became dominant. - **What you get**: Yahoo Messenger provided one-on-one and group text chat, voice and video calling, and file transfer between contacts. It included a buddy list showing who was online, customizable status messages and avatars, public chat rooms, and IMVironments (custom chat backgrounds/skins). It also integrated with other Yahoo services like Yahoo Mail. Yahoo shut the service down in July 2018 in favor of Yahoo Squirrel and other messaging efforts. - **How it works**: Users signed in with a Yahoo ID, added contacts to a buddy list, and clicked a name to open a chat window for text, voice, or video communication; offline messages were delivered the next time a contact came online. ## Profile - **Status**: discontinued (verified 2026-07-11) ## Ranked alternatives | # | App | Alt Score | Licence | Platforms | |---|-----|-----------|---------|-----------| | 1 | [Beeper](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/beeper.md) | building | Proprietary | iOS, Android, Windows, macOS | | 2 | [Delta Chat](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/delta-chat.md) | building | GPL-3.0 | iOS, Android, Windows, macOS | | 3 | [Jami](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/jami.md) | building | GPL-3.0 | iOS, Android, Windows, macOS | | 4 | [Session](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/session.md) | building | GPL-3.0 | Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS | | 5 | [Signal](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/signal.md) | building | AGPL-3.0 | iOS, Android, Windows, macOS | | 6 | [SimpleX Chat](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/simplex-chat.md) | building | AGPL-3.0 | iOS, Android, Windows, macOS | | 7 | [Telegram](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/telegram.md) | building | GPL-3.0 | iOS, Android, Windows, macOS | | 8 | [Threema](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/threema.md) | building | AGPL-3.0 | iOS, Android, Windows, macOS | | 9 | [Viber](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/viber.md) | building | Proprietary | iOS, Android, Windows, macOS | | 10 | [WhatsApp](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/whatsapp.md) | building | Proprietary | iOS, Android, Windows, macOS | | 11 | [Wire](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/wire.md) | building | GPL-3.0 | iOS, Android, Windows, macOS | Alt Score = Verified coverage (90%) + Visibility (10%). See https://altcatalog.com/how-alt-score-works/ ## Sources Sources for Yahoo Messenger. Each alternative is sourced on its own page. - **Status**: discontinued — (verified 2026-07-11) - Quote: “Oath, the Verizon subsidiary that operates Yahoo, announced Friday that it will shut down Yahoo Messenger next month. Users won't be able to access the service after July 17 anymore, according to a me” --- Ranked by verified data, never by who paid. https://altcatalog.com/trust/