The instant messenger of 2005, the way it was

What you find when you open it

The blue desktop and its window with the gradient title bar. The contact list sorted into groups, the available ones at the top and the offline ones at the bottom. The status: available, busy, away, be right back, on the phone, out to lunch. The little sound when someone signs in. The emoticons that fire when you type a colon and a bracket, the way they did.

What you can do with it

Talk one to one or several at once, send a nudge that shakes the other screen, change the font and colour of your text, draw with the mouse, send a voice message. Share files, call each other with voice or video, watch a video together at the same time, play a game of checkers. Choose your picture, your personal message, the theme of your windows and your desktop background.

What is not stored

There is no message table in the database. A message passes through the server and is gone: we cannot read it, restore it, or hand it to anyone. Files and calls go straight from one browser to the other. We ask for no name, no age, no phone number, and there is neither advertising nor a tracker.

On a phone as well

The same site opens on a phone, and adds itself to the home screen like a real app, with its own icon and no address bar. No app store, no updates to accept.

What people ask us most

Do I need an old MSN or Hotmail account?

No. The original accounts closed along with the service in 2013 and are of no use any more. You create an account here that belongs to ZKYMessenger, with the sign-in name of your choice.

Are my old contacts still there?

No, and nobody can bring them back: the contact lists of the time disappeared with the service. You have to give your sign-in name to your friends again, exactly as in 2005.

Does it work on a Mac, on Linux, on a phone?

Anywhere there is a recent browser. There is no version to install, so there is no operating system to satisfy.

Is the nudge really there?

Yes, and it shakes the other window the way it used to. One every thirty seconds at most, because it was already annoying back then, and because someone set to busy does not receive it.

Who can read my conversations?

Nobody, us included. There is no history on the server side: what is not written down cannot be read, cannot be stolen, and cannot be demanded in court. What your browser keeps on its own side is a setting, and one button erases it.

What does it cost, and where is the catch?

Nothing, and there isn't one. No advertising, no data resold, no paid version. The service is written and hosted by ZKYSolutions, a French sole trader.