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Amazon shutting down app for millions of users forever – and there’s nothing you can do

AMAZON’S own messaging app is shutting down next year.

The company’s Wickr service will close to the general public for good at the end of 2023.

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Amazon bought Wickr in 2021Credit: SOPA Images/LightRocket via Gett

It’s not clear why the retail giant is giving up on the Wickr Me app, which was popular with journalists and whistleblowers for its end-to-end encryption.

Self-destructing messages like Snapchat and WhatsApp was also a feature.

The firm operates two other versions of Wickr – Wickr Enterprise and AWS Wickr – which will not be affected by the change.

These are meant for businesses, government agencies, and military organisations instead.

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While users will still have just over a year to continue using Wickr Me, new users won’t have much longer to join, effectively making the app considerably less useful much sooner than the final cut off date.

Anyone interested in opening an account will have until December 31, 2022 – after that, new sign ups will be blocked for good.

The shutdown comes after reports emerged claiming that Wickr Me had become a “go-to destination” for paedophiles to exchange abuse images.

“After careful consideration, we will be concentrating Wickr’s focus on securing our business and public sector customers’ data and communications with AWS Wickr and Wickr Enterprise, and have decided to discontinue our consumer product, Wickr Me,” the company said.

“As a result, we will not accept user registrations for Wickr Me after December 31, 2022, and will discontinue Wickr Me on December 31, 2023.”

Wickr Me users can expect information on how to preserve their data “in the coming months”, the company added.

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Wickr was founded in 2012.

It was only acquired by Amazon’s AWS (Amazon Web Services) in 2021.

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