Cause of Death
Outcompeted
A superior competitor captured the market. Signal scores typically decline for 12–24 months before the shutdown announcement.
What Happened
GroupMe solved cross-platform group messaging before iMessage and WhatsApp made it trivial. Skype acquired it in 2011; Microsoft then acquired Skype and neglected GroupMe for years. It survived into 2024 on college campuses before Microsoft finally shut it down, citing Teams as the replacement.