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The ICQ messenger is no longer available on Google Play

The ICQ app is no longer available on the Google Play app store. This indicates that its development for Android has been abandoned. So from now, the official version can only be found in Huawei's AppGallery. Its last update was released back on January 26, 2021.

Icq Logo Banner

The iOS app has seen a slightly more recent update, three months ago.

ICQ was originally developed by the Israeli company Mirabilis in 1996. Over the years, ICQ was available on Windows, Windows Phone, Symbian, J2ME and S40 platforms.

Its popularity peak was in early 2000s when ICQ coexisted with MSN Messenger on many computers all around the world.  By 2001, ICQ had more than 100 million accounts registered. AOL acquired Mirabilis on June 8, 1998. The later versions are known for displaying annoying ads in the UI, causing a galore of alternative non-official client apps to appear.

The current ICQ owner, the Russian VK Group, has abandoned the project. Despite a reboot performed by Mail.ru, ICQ failed to restore its popularity, with users moving to WhatsApp, Viber, and Skype instead of using the new app version.

The VK Group has shifted their focus to VK messenger, with the VK social network being their main business. It already successfully serves as an in-place replacement for both ICQ and MRA apps.

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Author: Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube.

One thought on “The ICQ messenger is no longer available on Google Play”

  1. I see that, when i wanted to use it with my samsung tablet (usually don’t use apps in general, but i didn’t had the choice this time, i needed it). As it didn’t worked, i went on “icq web”, so like that you could reach for the internet icq version on your tablet, even android.

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