The endearing Yahoo Messenger is now a thing of the past. The world-famous instant messaging app, which those in their 20s and beyond used in a big way much before WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger became fashionable, is no more. In its place has come Squirrel, a new instant messaging app.

Taking birth as Yahoo Pager on March 9, 1998, Yahoo Messenger had a large fan base. Why has it been killed? "As the communications landscape continues to change over, we are focusing on building and introducing new, exciting communications tools that better fit consumer needs,” Yahoo has said in a statement. “We recommend that you delete the app after you have downloaded your chat history and anything else you would like to save," the statement further reads.

A fan, paying a RIP tribute to YM, said, "This was our Facebook, Messenger & Skype. Hours spent chatting with strangers. So many friends and memories made in those random chat rooms. Although stopped using it ages ago but cannot forget it.

Sad to see it going down." Noted another user, "End of a cyber era. Grandfather of Whatsapp! First online chatting tool of 90s kids. Introduced smileys to us. And for the first time, made us break geographical boundaries on the internet in real time." Its Public Chat Rooms feature was pretty much famous.