De Ja vu ICQ group video chat and WhatsApp group video call feature

A History of Video Calling

  I used it when it was first available 2 decades ago.

This the classic example of Old wine in a new bottle

ICQ was one of the original wunderkinds of the internet age. It was created and released by four Israeli high school kids, and went on to rival the world’s largest messaging apps. It predated the messaging services of AOL and Yahoo, and grew so quickly in popularity it was bought by AOL for $400 million just two years after its launch.

And there begins a strange history of continued innovation largely left unsupported by ownership. AOL never dropped its own messaging service, creating a conflict of interest, and when its fortunes dipped in the early Millennium years ICQ went with them.

It lingered on in virtual anonymity, still striking a number of firsts–including voice chats in 2003, SMS links between phones and PCs, early peer-to-peer development, and early adoption of integration with Facebook, Twitter, and the emerging social networks–before it was sold to the Russian group in 2010 for less than $200 million.


It’s a pity ICQ never enjoyed the success its early progress suggested was its destiny, but it is still remarkable that so seminal a work continues to exist at all. Vine lasted four years, AOL fell from grace long ago, and Nintendo has had its share of wilderness years, while ICQ still keeps drawing breath.