this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2026
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uh oh
No, not ICQ
ICQ was pretty good. You could message offline people, which AOL/aim didn't support. Of course, this lead to a whole experience of waiting for your friend/crush to log on, but then not messaging them immediately... but then they log off and the opportunity passed.
It takes me a minute to remember my cell number, but I can rattle off my IQC number in a second. My ICQ fridge magnet was kept for decades through multiple moves
I remember i downloaded ICQ for my counter strike clan. That was the first i had ever heard of it, but i guess it had hit international popularity already . When I realized you just got a number, i was baffled that i couldnt search by name. Didnt take me long to memorize that number and make many online friends
Random chat made me some amazing friends that I kept in touch with for decades. Those friendships lasted longer than IQC did. Sadly, the Internet is a different place now.
Oh gosh I can still remember mine!
23496*** censored just in case.
sad ship horn noises
I loved ICQ! I'm sure some people thought it was a horrible idea to see people type in real time but to me it was peak messenging.
I loved ICQ too at the time, but I'm not giving up End-To-End encrypted messaging for copyright stealing ICQ.
But I'm totally okay to see ICQ brought back as a "skin" for the matrix-protocol. Something that looks, sounds and works like ICQ, but is based on modern communications technology.
I still know my ICQ number by heart, and a close friends too, who is lower than mine by about 50k. 140... and mine was 201...
Haven't used em in about 25 years.
But then I also still know my childhood phone number.