• How to add ICQ to a new agent. What happened to ICQ and why use it now. Group chats, communicate with the whole world

    The way how add user to ICQ, is distinguished by its simplicity. But since this messenger is becoming popular again, many users are confused with this task. Therefore, we have prepared concise instructions on the topic and recommend that you read it. The material is relevant for both mobile devices and the desktop client.

    Search

    Previously, it was possible to search for people in the service only by UIN number or email. Now the situation has changed for the better, and you can add friends via your phone. Let's consider both search options.

    Option 1: Phone number

    Instructions for computers and laptops:

    And on mobile devices everything is much simpler. The fact is that the phone's phone book is synchronized with the list of friends in the messenger. So all you have to do is write down the person in it. In some cases, a reboot will be required for the data to update.

    Option 2: UIN

    Previously, people in ICQ were searched through UIN - a unique identifier consisting only of numbers. And this method still remains relevant. Let's figure out how to use it on PC and mobile devices. The instructions also apply to searching via email.

    To find a person on a computer in ICQ in this way, you just need to enter his UIN in the appropriate form. And then open a dialogue with the person and start communicating with him. On smartphones and tablets everything is a little different:

    A contact list in ICQ is a list of people with whom the program user most often communicates. You can add friends, relatives, colleagues and just acquaintances to it so as not to lose and contact them without problems. After all, ICQ is a free service for instant messaging, as well as for making voice and video calls. For convenient perception of information, the list displays not only ICQ numbers, but also nicknames. You can also give your contact a name yourself. But it happens that when you enter the program, you do not find a list of your subscribers there. Let's figure out why this happens and how to get out of this situation.

    Why contacts in ICQ may disappear

    If you have opened your profile and the contact list is empty, the reasons may be:

    • developers are carrying out repair work or the server is being updated;
    • site glitch;
    • an old version of the application is used;
    • subscribers removed themselves from your list (but this is possible if you had few of them; if you had a lot, it’s unlikely that they all decided to leave at once).

    Whatever the reason for the loss, you still want to recover the lost data.

    How to recover missing contacts

    There are several ways to return contacts to ICQ:

    1. Reboot the device on which the program is installed.
    2. Reinstall the application, that is, delete and download again. Next, log in to the messenger using your username and password that you created during registration. The program will automatically read all your personal information.
    3. If both the first and second methods do not give a positive result, try going to the official website icq.com by entering your data. Your contacts will be visible here. If necessary, you can save them as a text document, then enter them into the ICQ contact sheet manually.
    4. Go to the program folder and find the folder with your contacts there, it is located at: C:\Program Files\QIP\Users\Your number. In it, delete files with the extension .cl, .clg, .cli, .clv, .lcl, .nil and ini. However, if you use non-standard connection settings, you will need to specify them and also enter the password again. After this action, contacts should resume.
    5. Open the .cl files using notepad or go to: C:\Program Files\QIP\Users\Your UIN\Backup cl\Your UIN with the desired date.cl, copy all the information contained here, then open C:\Program Files\ QIP\Users\Your UIN\Your UIN.cl, delete everything that is there and paste the copied data from the backup.
    6. You can restore a lost Contact List using the QIP Contact Manager program, which can import a list of users in several ways. The information is taken from a file with the extension .cl, .clb or .cmb.

    In the future, to avoid data loss, back up your data and save the information on a separate medium.

    Oh, this is nostalgia! We downloaded the messenger and realized that EVERYTHING has changed since those long ago.

    I am sure (and hope) that most of our readers have had their own ICQ at some point. Someone had a super ELITE 5 or 6 digit number and was extremely proud of it.

    And someone, like me, simply communicated in this real messenger of the future and felt at the forefront of progress.

    Time has long passed, but ICQ remains. Many things forced us to switch to other messengers, and we forgot about Asya. But in vain, because she grew up, became prettier and generally became completely different.

    In my opinion, these changes suit her. For the 20th anniversary of ICQ, we remembered what happened a long time ago and looked at what the service has today. Is it worth putting it on and trying to fall in love again? Let's read.

    A little history. How it was just recently

    About 15 years ago, communication on the Internet was very different from today. We did not have the most powerful smartphones in our hands and there was no mobile Internet; we corresponded with friends using desktop computers and push-button phones.

    The most popular messenger at that time was ICQ (in common parlance “ICQ”). Simple and reliable program. Like Winamp, only from the world of instant messengers. Students probably won't understand. The Internet wasn’t a garbage dump back then... but oh well, let’s not talk about that now :)

    ICQ (I seek you) – translated into Russian, the name of this program means “I am looking for you”.

    The fate of ICQ is not easy, there were ups and downs. So, in 2005, the total number of users reached 500 million users, but over time the situation began to change. The main program became cumbersome and stuffed with advertising, and third-party clients appeared that used the same protocol (Miranda, QIP).

    Actively developing social networks dealt a serious blow to ICQ’s position; many users began to communicate exclusively there.

    As a result, in 2010, the company was purchased by the investment fund Digital Sky Technologies, which was led by the famous billionaire Alisher Usmanov, and became part of the Mail.ru Group. At this moment, messengers for smartphones Whatsapp and Viber began to take over the world of online communication. Many have begun to forget the “grandfather” of all popular instant messaging clients.

    We decided to figure out what ICQ is today and whether it can be used.

    1. Versatility, you can communicate anywhere

    The ICQ client can be downloaded for any platform. From Android to OS X. There is even a WEB version that allows you to communicate from your account without installing anything at all. We go to web.icq.com, log in via mobile phone (you will receive an SMS with a confirmation code) and feel free to communicate directly in the browser.

    As before, each user is assigned UIN(Universal Internet Number). Accordingly, you can log in either using it or via email or mobile number. Unfortunately, I was unable to recover the data from my ancient account from the 2000s, I didn’t remember the password, and I couldn’t answer the security question either.

    I had to register again. Everything is elementary and no different from actions in Telegram.

    Just like in any modern messenger, you can call or make a video call directly in ICQ. All calls to ICQ are protected by end-to-end encryption.

    2. Notifications, a long-forgotten sound can still be heard


    Mac version

    The program asks for access to the address book on the iPhone and tells which of your friends, the very old dinosaur, uses ICQ.

    Of course we will hear the famous notification sound (ooh!), it works in all versions.

    Notifications are easy to configure; you can block an annoying contact if necessary, and in one click. A convenient feature: ICQ won’t irritate (or bombard) you with the number of unread messages. Telegram itself can’t do this; at most you can turn off the sound of notifications.

    3. Familiar interface, modern and convenient


    Mac version

    The program greets you with a familiar interface. But those we know not from ICQ, but from any standard modern messenger. On the left is a menu with all contacts, on the right is the main chat with a specific user. There is easy, logical customization - favorite contacts, different backgrounds. Everything is like people, in a word.

    I’m glad that the entire menu is extremely logical; you don’t have to look for the necessary items at all. Everything is at hand.

    4. Group chats, communicate with the whole world


    iPhone version

    You can communicate not only one-on-one, but also in a large group. You added everyone to one group and decide the question posed, for example, where should the company spend the New Year? Simple and convenient.

    There are also public group chats, a kind of public account option in Viber. You can communicate, receive useful news, send new music, etc. Dating chats are more like a gathering of schoolchildren, I wonder what they are even doing here?

    5. Snaps – take photos and make stories


    iPhone version

    Perhaps the most interesting innovation of modern ICQ is the so-called snaps. These are temporary photo publications; they appeared here even earlier than a similar Stories feature on Instagram.

    ICQ also offers to process the media file in its own editor using neural networks. Newfangled chip, many people like it. In addition, there is an analogue of MSQRD with its own blackjack and whores list of branded masks from bunnies to terminator.

    The most popular pictures are included in the list of the best snaps on the corresponding page of the application. You can become famous.

    What's the result?

    The bottom line is that modern ICQ is: stable reliable messenger. If it weren’t for his difficult fate in 2008-2012, he would now be in global trends.

    Oddly enough, today it is used not only by old Internet users, but also by young people who are disappointed by the glitches of Skype and the limitations of Telegram and Whatsapp. Much of what is available in ICQ today is not possible anywhere else.

    By the way, on November 15, 2016, the legendary messenger turned 20 years old. It is alive, works reliably and never stops developing. The amazing is nearby. The real history of the Internet, you need to touch it at least once - you can download the legend absolutely free on the official website of the messenger.

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