ICQ was created in 1996 and positioned as an Internet pager, which, unlike its competitors, was distributed free of charge. Having survived several owners, as well as a number of “harassment” by Microsoft, it is now in the hands of the Mail.ru Group and is still functional.
ICQ is a convenient and very easy messenger for communicating with friends around the world.
Although the program has been on the market for a long time and there are enough users for it, many still wish to join the ranks of its users. How to use it?
Download and install
The safest and most convenient way to install will be to download the program from the official site - //icq.com/windows/en. Here you can select the required platform on which the program will be installed.
After downloading the program to the directory you specified, open the installer shortcut by clicking on it with the mouse. A window will open in which you should click on the "install" button. Actually, that's all.
The safest and most convenient way to install will be to download the program from the official site.
Now open the program, a registration window will appear, requesting information about your phone number and country. A verification code will be sent to the number provided, by entering which you will proceed to the next stage - your nickname and avatar. That's it, the installation and registration process is complete. Please note that you have entered only some personal data. The rest should also be entered and a little further you will learn where and how to do it.
Using the program, adding contacts and available features
Given the purpose of ICQ, you will need contacts to get started. Go to the appropriate tab and in the field enter the details of the person with whom you would like to start a correspondence. For this you need to know the name of the person or his phone or UIN. The UIN is the personal number of the ICQ user, which is given to the user upon registration and consists of 5–9 digits. In fact, this particular code contains all personal information, including first name, last name, nickname, number, email, etc.
Now, having a list of contacts, displayed in the left part of the program, you have the opportunity to observe which of them are on the network (they will be above the rest). Having opened a chat with the interlocutor, you will open a number of basic functions that you can use:
- Send a message.
Perhaps the main function of the program. In the window that opens, the dialog between you and the interlocutor will be displayed, and in its lower part, in a special field, you will enter text by sending it by clicking on the Send key or using the Ctrl + Enter combination.
Having a list of contacts, displayed in the left part of the program, you have the opportunity to observe which of them is online
- Send file or document
Select the required document, describe it in the opened window and send it to the interlocutor. The same actions should be taken in the case when you need to download the file sent.
- Send chat request
In case of confirmation from the interlocutor, a chat will open in which you can chat.
- Additional settings
Clicking the right mouse button on the three circles in the upper part of the correspondence will open an additional window in which you can add a contact to your favorites, turn off notifications from the chat, change the background image, add a new interlocutor, clear the history or delete the chat.
The program interface and change the basic profile settings
In a program installed on Windows, the interface is quite simple and intuitive. The main functions are located in the lower left part of the program and are presented in tabs. On the first one there are open and accessible chat rooms, on the second one all your contacts are marked, the third one is a live chat consisting of people unfamiliar to you and based on a certain subject and on the fourth one there are settings. There is a little information about your profile, there are parameters that are responsible for notifications, appearance and additional accessories and their settings.
The interface is simple and very clear.
To go to the menu of a deeper profile setting, you must open the “My Profile” tab and in the right part click on the “Edit” button. By the way, here you can change your status in the program. Using the default browser, the ICQ site and your profile in it will open. This is where all the basic profile settings are located. By the way, your phone number, specified during registration, is at the same time your password. Consider this, otherwise, to be honest, this even confused me a little.
Account deleting
The need to get rid of your account may arise in many cases. They will not consider them all, but just try to figure out how to do it.
In the special window, enter the password that you used to access the profile and click on the “Delete account” button
First of all, go to the web page specifically designed for this - //icq.com/delete-account/ru. The browser will open the old version of the official site of the program. If you have already been authenticated on the new site, you will not have to enter your data and enter the profile here. Otherwise, you should enter the profile before the removal procedure. The page will show important information from the manufacturer regarding the deletion, and just below the name and profile of your account. In the special window, enter the password that you used to access the profile and click on the “Delete account” button. That's all, the profile is deleted, as well as all the information about it.