Yahoo! Messenger Public Chat Rooms will close down on December 14, 2012

The Yahoo! Messenger Public Chat Rooms will close down on December 14, 2012.


Here at Yahoo!, we aspire to make the world’s daily habits inspiring and entertaining. More than ever, we’re focused on building products that are beautiful and meaningful for our users. Sometimes, this means we have to make tough decisions — like closing down features that we feel aren’t adding enough value for you. This helps us spend more energy on creating experiences that make Yahoo! the most fun way to spend your time.





With this in mind, we have decided to discontinue several Yahoo! product features. This will enable us to refocus our efforts on modernizing our core Yahoo! products experiences and of course, create new ones. You can find more details below, including how the closures will work.

Yahoo! Messenger Public Chat Rooms

The Yahoo! Messenger Public Chat Rooms will close down on December 14, 2012.

Yahoo! Messenger Pingbox

As of December 14, 2012, Pingbox will no longer be available on Yahoo! Messenger. If you’ve installed Pingbox on your blog or social networks, please click here to learn how to uninstall it.

Yahoo! Messenger interoperability with Microsoft Windows Live Messenger

Yahoo! Messenger will no longer be interoperable with Microsoft Windows Live Messenger as of December 14, 2012. Microsoft buddies will still appear on your Messenger contact list, but they will be greyed out, and if you try to send instant messages to them, the messages will not be delivered.

Yahoo! Voice Phone In and Phone Out feature

Effective January 30, 2013, we will no longer offer Yahoo! Voice Phone In and Phone Out capabilities, our co-branded landline and mobile phone service from Jajah. As of today, users can no longer add new funds to their accounts, and active users who currently have a balance in their accounts will receive emailed instructions in December from Jajah on how to request a refund. You can find more information on how to ask for a refund here, and you can contact Jajah with any questions at yahoovoice@jajah.com. Free Messenger-to-Messenger calls will still be offered through Yahoo! Messenger.
Thank you to everyone who have used these features. We plan to keep innovating and building great Yahoo! products that will delight our users in the years to come.