The button in the middle is obviously new. Old conversations from bygone times can no longer be found here despite the old login data. Today this consists of three categories: on the far left in the menu you can find video chats, on the right you get to the text chats, which have apparently destroyed themselves within ten years.

Shortly afterwards you get to the main menu of the messenger. In terms of data protection, this is at least as questionable as with Whatsapp – but it also has the advantage that you no longer have to exchange complicated ICQ numbers. Immediately after installing the app, the user is prompted to specify this and to synchronize his entire phone book. Those who register at ICQ today usually no longer do so with their nine-digit number, but with their mobile phone number. Would the Messenger dino really be an alternative? A look at the app – and at its security features.īecause WhatsApp has announced new data protection guidelines, users are switching to the alternative messenger service Telegram in droves. Actually the perfect time for an ICQ comeback. The time for a comeback could hardly be better: Messenger Whatsapp has been exposed to massive criticism for weeks due to new data protection guidelines, users are switching in droves to alternative messenger services such as Telegram, Signal or Threema. Meanwhile, ICQ does not yet play a major role in the German app charts. The users of the messenger are mainly former children of the nineties, who are now, decades later, returning to the once popular messenger. These have increased up to 35 times in January, ICQ is even being used in schools, reports the newspaper.

ICQ-Boom in HongkongĪnd word of that seems to get around: in Hong Kong, for example, they should according to a report in the “Wall Street Journal” Recently the number of downloads of the ICQ messenger has skyrocketed. The app, which in pre-smartphone times was still used stationary on one’s computer, is now a full-fledged smartphone messenger that is in no way inferior to Whatsapp and Co. Apparently, an email address was not linked to the service at the time – it is therefore not possible to reset the password.Īfter several unsuccessful attempts and a lot of guesswork, it finally works: I’m in, in good old ICQ.

Amazingly, I know my nine-digit ICQ number still by heart – rather, it fails because of the password. My first attempt to register with ICQ after more than ten years is slow.

Old icq chat