63 
1 
Download MP3 
ICQ, launched in the mid-1990s as one of the first mainstream instant messaging services, let users keep a contact list and see when friends signed on, and its short incoming-contact chime became part of that daily routine. As later apps replaced it, the sound survived in clips, compilations and reaction videos as shorthand for early internet culture. Today creators reuse it to signal nostalgia, an old-school chat or a surprise online arrival, because even listeners who never used ICQ recognise its distinctive two-note pattern.
About this sound
The ICQ incoming contact alert is a short two-tone chime that signalled a friend coming online. Creators use it for messaging jokes and 90s nostalgia edits.
The ICQ incoming contact sound is a brief, bright electronic chime made of two rising notes that instantly announced someone had just come online. It is clean and unmistakable, with a slightly tinny, early-internet tone that cuts through a video without overpowering dialogue. For many viewers it triggers an immediate flash of recognition, recalling dial-up era chats, buddy lists and waiting for a friend's name to light up. In edits it works as a quick punctuation mark, signalling a new message, a surprise arrival or a throwback to simpler online days.
