You asked about Messaging
46 people built something like it. 18 are gone.
That is 47% of the ones whose fate we could settle, against 23% across the whole register. 8 were acquired.
| Launched | What it was | Today |
|---|---|---|
| 2016-06-01 | YCBird The world’s largest omnichannel communications platform · bird.com | still up |
| 2011-06-01 | Engage customers through personalized omni-channel messaging · onesignal.com | still up |
| 2016-01-01 | YCChatfuel Platform to easily create chatbots to engage with audiences on… · chatfuel.com | still up |
| 2022-06-01 | YCBoostly Premier growth platform for restaurants · boostly.com | still up |
| 2019-06-01 | We help companies scale marketing campaigns through WhatsApp · treble.ai | still up |
| 2019-06-01 | YCCourier The fastest way for developers to build notifications for their app. · courier.com | still up |
| 2016-01-01 | All-In-One Business Operating System by PocketSuite · pocketsuite.io | still up |
| 2020-06-01 | YCLaylo The CRM powering iconic musicians and events · laylo.com | still up |
| 2016-01-01 | YCMailTime Emails as quick and easy as text messaging. · mailtime.com | still up |
| 2021-06-01 | YCUnion54 Developers of ChitChat, an integrated messaging and payments wallet… · union54.com | still up |
| 2017-01-01 | YCFibo SaaS calendar and messaging for SMBs · fiboapp.com | gone |
| 2018-01-01 | YCOpenland Messenger for communities · openland.com | gone |
| 2016-01-01 | YCMio Mio powers seamless communication between workplace chat apps. · m.io | still up |
| 2016-01-01 | YCmRelief mRelief has built an easy-to-use platform and web and text messaging… · mrelief.com | still up |
| 2012-01-01 | YCMedigram We are making a HIPAA-compliant, Groupme app for doctors to… · medigram.com | still up |
| 2018-01-01 | Unified, enterprise messaging platform for leading brands of the world · glowing.io | still up |
| 2015-06-01 | YCLocent Locent is an automated messaging platform for companies · locent.com | gone |
| 2014-01-01 | Message without interrupting what you're doing · hoverchat.com | gone |
| 2013-06-01 | YCHum A chat program that integrates with email, with presence. · letshum.com | gone |
| 2020-06-01 | YCHere Where friends watch, play and hang together in digital rooms · here.fm | gone |
| 2021-01-01 | Analyzing EHR and messaging data to predict disease before it occurs. · quadrant.health | still up |
| 2021-01-01 | YCPingPong Video messaging app for remote teams. · getpingpong.com | acquired |
| 2020-01-01 | YCEnveloop Design and send messages from your app with a simple API. · enveloop.com | gone |
| 2021-06-01 | YCHilos Close and activate your customers on WhatsApp · hilos.io | acquired |
| 2024-06-01 | YCPraxos Team messaging with built-in memory · praxos.ai | still up |
| 2012-01-01 | YCCouple App that connects two phones and creates a private
timeline to share… · couple.me | gone |
| 2014-01-01 | Mailing lists 2.0.
Threadable makes group email less noisy and more… · threadable.com | gone |
| 2026-01-01 | YCSila Agent Messaging Platform · silahq.com | still up |
| 2012-06-01 | YCVoiceGem Voice messaging platform - Acquired by Palantir in 2013 · voicegem.com | acquired |
| 2016-01-01 | YCToymail Connected toys that enable two-way voice messaging between children… · toymail.co | gone |
| 2012-01-01 | Help families stay in touch · familyleaf.com | acquired |
| 2007-01-01 | YCTsumobi Messaging. · tsumobi.com | gone |
| 2022-06-01 | Open-source customer engagement & messaging automation · dittofeed.com | still up |
| 2017-01-01 | YCRiley MailChimp for SMS · getrileynow.com | gone |
| 2017-06-01 | YCGuggy Guggy is building the messaging app of the future with real time,… · guggy.com | gone |
| 2015-01-01 | YCOutbound Create automated messages -- email, iOS/Android push, SMS and web… · outbound.io | acquired |
| 2011-01-01 | YCConvore Hosted IRC and so much more. · convore.com | gone |
| 2011-01-01 | YCTellFi Google Voice for business. · tellfi.com | gone |
| 2022-06-01 | YCTypeLess AI messaging API for smarter, faster communication. · apps.apple.com | still up |
| 2012-01-01 | Instantly talk or text to one or a group of friends at once with the… · talkray.com | gone |
| 2010-06-01 | Local chat. · messageparty.com | gone |
| 2014-06-01 | Whatsapp for voice · zipphone.com | acquired |
| 2022-01-01 | YCSendo The best SMS/RCS API for startups · sendo.dev | gone |
| 2024-09-01 | YCCharm Charm is the universal payments app — send money to anyone. · charm.cash | still up |
| 2007-01-01 | YCHeysan Free messaging on mobile phones · heysan.com | acquired |
| 2011-01-01 | YCTalkBin Consumer to business messaging. · talkbin.com | acquired |
How this compares
The register re-probes every domain it holds. Some that answered last month stop answering. We send that list — what went quiet, and what it was — once a month. Nothing else.
How this was made. Show HN entries are every post from 2021 to 2023 with at least five points that linked to its own domain; code hosts and free hosting are excluded, because a repository outlives the effort behind it. Product Hunt entries needed 100 votes — a far higher bar, so they are the promoted top slice rather than a like-for-like sample. Both are judged by asking the domain whether it still answers: gone means it no longer resolves, refuses the connection, serves a parking page, or says plainly that it shut down. An HTTP error is not counted as gone — a server answering 404 is one somebody still pays for, and an audit of 25 gone-calls found two such sites alive with only a moved homepage. Y Combinator entries use the status YC publishes itself, which is why only those can say acquired. Squatted domains — a lapsed name now serving somebody else's site — are not detected, so these figures run slightly low.