Yahoo Messenger is finally dead but if you want to save those ASL chats you still can

Yahoo Messenger is now officially dead. The company last month announced that it would be pulling the plug on its Messenger service on July 17 and the sad thing has finally happened.

"We know we have many loyal fans who have used Yahoo Messenger since its beginning as one of the first chat apps of its kind. As the communications landscape continues to change over, we're focusing on building and introducing new, exciting communications tools that better fit consumer needs," the company wrote in a blog post.

You can no longer access the Yahoo Messenger chats but before you start panicking -- yes, you three who still use the Yahoo Messenger in 2018 -- on what happens to all your chats, here's something to cheer you up. Yahoo is giving the Messenger users a way to help save all your treasured chats from the days when Yahoo Messenger was a thing. Remember those ASL days? Well, you can download your chat history on your phone or computer.

Note that your Yahoo user ID will continue to work which means you can still have an access to your Yahoo Mail, and use other services like Facebook or Twitter where you may have signed in using your Yahoo account.

For those who do not want to lose their chats on Yahoo, here's how you can download and save the chat history on your personal device:

-- Go to the downloader request page.

-- Sign in your Yahoo account.

-- Select a verification method and Yahoo will send you an Account key on your alternative email ID that you had entered.

-- You will be shown a success sign in message.

-- Accept the new privacy terms and conditions.

-- Next, click on download.

-- The page will ask you enter an email address on which you will be notified when the download is ready.

-- Download the data from your mail once you receive it on your mail.

You have six months from now to download your Yahoo Messenger chat history and after that there will no way to retrieve your chats. Poof, it will be gone! The company says that it is now working on a new Squirrel messaging app but that is no replacement to Yahoo Messenger. The app is currently in an invite-only closed beta.