Reviving ICQ: How Open‑Source Projects Are Rebuilding Classic Chat Servers

ICQ Revival Efforts

Recent news of ICQ’s impending shutdown has spurred several independent developers to launch open‑source projects aimed at recreating the classic instant‑messaging service.

Multiple teams are already working on preserving ICQ accounts (e.g., 73187508) and keeping the legacy protocol alive.

Historically, many 1990s IM protocols, including AOL’s AIM, were open or later documented; the proprietary OSCAR protocol, used by ICQ, has been reverse‑engineered to create clients such as GAIM.

With AOL’s AIM service discontinued in 2017, developers are using the available documentation to build new servers. Two notable projects implement OSCAR servers for Linux: the AIM OSCAR Server and Retro AIM Server.

The most ambitious effort is the NINA project, which aims to open‑source services for AOL, MSN, Yahoo! and ICQ. Backed by Level Leap, a cloud‑computing‑focused medical software company, NINA provides paid‑access testing for ICQ and AIM, with support levels labeled alpha, beta, and gamma.

Level Leap’s Tony explains that they are completing the remaining ICQ features, including APIs added by Mail.ru/VK, supporting versions from ICQ 2000 up to ICQ 8—more than any other effort.

In addition, the project offers patched client versions and custom connectors for FOSS clients like Pidgin.

These initiatives keep 20‑century chat systems alive and accessible to modern Linux users.