Users can bid farewell to Yahoo Messenger as Yahoo! has announced that it will be killing its messaging app on July 17.

Popular internet services company Yahoo! declared its plans to shut down its Yahoo Messenger next month from July 17. For now users can continue using the service but after July 17 they won’t be able to access their chats as the service will no longer be supported.

Yahoo! explained that it is aware of ‘loyal fans’ that use the messaging app since its beginning as ‘one of the first chat apps of its kind’, but the reason for this shut down is because they are focusing more on ‘building and introducing new, exciting communications tools that better fit consumer needs’.

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Yahoo! also said that at present there is no replacement available for Yahoo Messenger, but it is experimenting with new services and apps. However, one of the replacements can be a service currently in beta version called Yahoo Squirrel can be used, which is an invite-only group messaging app. The request for an invite can be sent at Yahoo Squirrel’s website.

About the chat history, Yahoo! explained that it can be downloaded for the next six month to PC or device. For that the Yahoo! explained the steps that start with first going to the ‘downloader request site’, signing in and selecting a verification method. The user would then have to enter the ‘Account Key’ sent to them and click ‘Download’. The user will next enter the email where they want their file to be sent and select ‘OK’ and the file will be sent.

In the end, Yahoo! recommend that users should delete the app once they have downloaded and saved all the data as it would no longer be accessible after July 17. Also, the user’s Yahoo ID will continue to work for other of Yahoo products including Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Fantasy.