Download the Verizon Message Archives

Stay connected using Verizon Messages sync features for your Smartphone, tablet, and computer. Keep the conversation going even when you’re switching between devices. Connect with family, friends, teammates, and more through personalized group chats, texts, photos, videos and gift cards worth up to $100 at stores like Starbucks, Dominos, and more. Now anyone can download and chat with Verizon Messages, even non Verizon customers (available on compatible devices).

GROUP CHATS – Create larger group chats with up to 250 people. Send and receive photos/videos in seconds. Personalize your chat experience with avatars, backgrounds and more. You can even mute a conversation or add or remove members or without creating a new group.
YELP INTEGRATION – Tap the plus menu and easily access Yelp from within the app. Search for restaurants, entertainment and directions. Make plans and share the details all within your chat.
SHARE YOUR LOCATION – Glympse™ lets you share your location with the people you choose for the length of time you set. Perfect for meeting up, or letting people know you’re running late.
SEND AN eGIFT – Tap the plus menu and select eGifts icon. Easily send an eGift card right through text message. eGifting has been expanded to include eGift cards from more than 30 brands
SYNC ACROSS DEVICES – Download Verizon Messages on all your devices, and sync messages across your smartphone, tablet and computer. Switch devices whenever you want. Make calls with your tablet anywhere.
DRIVING MODE – Turn on driving mode to send an Auto-Reply message and disable incoming message notifications so you don’t get distracted on the road.
HD VOICE CALLING – Eligibility rules apply. Link your phone number to the Verizon Messages app on your tablet and make and receive calls wherever they want on any network (cellular or Wi-Fi).

Other features:
# Schedule messages to be delivered at a specific date/time, even if your phone is turned off.
# Search the web for images and gifs to include in your chat with Yahoo search.
# Express yourself through colorful Emoji’s by tapping on highlighted keywords when composing messages.
# Send and receive messages over Wi-Fi from your smartphone, iOS device, tablet, PC, MAC, and web browser.

Need Help? Visit our Support Pages at
http://support.verizonwireless.com/clc/features/data_services/verizon-messages.html
View the complete Terms & Conditions at:
https://www.verizonwireless.com/support/verizon-messages-legal/
View the Verizon Messages privacy policy at:
https://www.verizon.com/about/privacy/verizon-messages-app-privacy-policy

from the ill-communication dept

Verizon's often sad efforts to pivot from curmudgeonly old telco to sexy new Millennial advertising giant have not gone as the company had hoped. From the failure of its Go90 streaming service to its clumsy effort to turn AOL and Yahoo into a Facebook-killing ad empire, Verizon often can't get out of Verizon's way. The "consumer comes last" executive mindset of the government-pampered telecom monopoly is frequently reflected by its policies, like Verizon's decision to acquire Tumblr, ban one of the most compelling aspects of the service (adult content and art), then turn around and sell it at a massive loss.

When archivists attempted to try and preserve a lot of the adult-themed art that Verizon was jettisoning, Verizon responded by banning archivist IP ranges for no coherent reason. Much like Facebook, Verizon positively adores looking at a controversial situation, then coming up with the worst possible policy and PR response. You know, like that time they hired a fake journalist to pretend the company wasn't trying to kill net neutrality.

Another case in point. Back in October, Verizon and Yahoo informed users of Yahoo Groups that the 20 year community would be shut down coming this December 14. Archivists set about trying to catalog and store the decades of conversations, images, and content on the platform. But Verizon being Verizon, those archivists now say the company is actively undermining their efforts, including banning Archive Team email addresses being used to archive content, and actively blocking tools used for the same purpose:

"Yahoo banned all the email addresses that the Archive Team volunteers had been using to join Yahoo Groups in order to download data. Verizon has also made it impossible for the Archive Team to continue using semi-automated scripts to join Yahoo Groups – which means each group must be re-joined one by one, an impossible task (redo the work of the past 4 weeks over the next 10 days).

On top of that, something Yahoo did has killed the last third party tool that users and owners have been using to access their messages, photos and files. (PGOlffine).. Note: not everyone who paid for the PGOffline license is being impacted by the problem. but the developer does not have a workaround."

Under Section 230 Verizon faces no liability for the content shared on the platform, and there's no valid reason for them to be fighting back against archival efforts. Yet here we are. Verizon didn't respond to several requests for comment, so it's hard to understand what the telco is thinking, if it's thinking at all. I spoke briefly to Archive Team co-founder Jason Scott and Cory Doctorow, both of whom were than impressed by the company's tone deafness:

"What they are doing is burning 20 years of history and archives maintained by communities with a non-functioning system for backing them up," he said. “They made no real preparations for users to pull the information out because companies like Yahoo! were never designed to allow information to leave their walled gardens."

“This is 20 years of communities, discussion and artifacts from millions of groups, all representing learned information, legal and historical references, and naturally, the conversations of tens of millions of users,” Scott said. “Some of it is likely worthless and some of it is likely precious. It is all being treated like trash."

It's one thing for Verizon to shutter the platform. It's another for Verizon to actively block harmless efforts to preserve 20 years of internet history ahead of the shutdown. But being a government pampered monopoly in a largely non competitive market has left Verizon ill-prepared to actually listen to the communities it impacts (especially when there's no money to be made by doing so), a major reason Verizon's pivot from telco to new media ad darling hasn't quite gone according to plan.

Updated: After Verizon's behavior resulted in some unwanted media attention, the company has finally changed its stance. It now tells me it has extended the deadline for the Yahoo Groups shut down to Friday, January 31, 2020 at 11:59pm PST.

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Filed Under: archives, blocks, digital history, groups, history, yahoo groups
Companies: archive team, internet archive, verizon, yahoo