Yahoo Tells Ship & Bunker More About the End of "Legacy" Yahoo Messenger

On August 5 the "legacy" messenger will no longer work.

Since our report last week that Yahoo will shut down its legacy messenger system on August 5, Ship & Bunker has since spoken to the tech giant who was able to add some further insight on the matter.

The first thing is that Yahoo confirmed that the old desktop messenger app (the one you're probably using today) will definitely no longer work after August 5.

Better news is that your conversation histories will not be deleted on August 5, rather, they will be archived in Yahoo Mail and be will be able to be exported via a download link.

As for a desktop version of the replacement "new" messenger, a Yahoo spokesperson reiterated they were working on it, but could not say when it would be available.

In other words, do not plan for this to be available by August 5.

Those interested in getting progress updates for when that might be available can sign up for notification emails here: https://www.getfeedback.com/r/n9JUXsCu/q/1

We also asked Yahoo about some of the interoperability issues both Ship & Bunker and some of our readers have experienced when switching to the new platform.

Yahoo pointed again to their statement that there was limited support for this, but their position remains that conversations between the old and new messenger system should work.

Based on our experiences and feedback so far then, Ship & Bunker advises that you confirm receipt of any messages sent to parties potentially using the new system.

Some readers have also expressed concern that they were unable to get to their contacts, and one thing the spokesperson did point out was a change to how buddy lists are accessed.

"Contacts, your buddy list, are living in a different place now. To see your contacts, you need to click the Compose icon image and start typing a name, then the matching contacts will appear," she said.

More information on this, and more, can be found in and FAQ here: https://help.yahoo.com/kb/yahoo-messenger-for-web/SLN26860.html

Finally, we asked Yahoo about concerns over compliance and whether "new messenger" would meet the needs for users such as those in the bunker industry.

The spokesperson pointed out potential compliance issues, in particular that the new Yahoo Messenger does not archive your conversations, instead, your conversations will remain in the chat until you close out or clear the conversation history.

Ultimately, the message we're getting is that Yahoo's new product is aimed at catching up with other consumer products, and while it might be secure, it's not an enterprise solution.

This means that in terms of what the industry does now, "new" messenger is up against all the other similar consumer products.

To that end, last week's poll of Ship & Bunker readers suggests WhatsApp will be the new platform of choice, having received 34 percent of the 244 votes cast at the time of writing.

Skype is second, with 27 percent, ahead of "New Messenger" with 18 percent of votes.