A service rarely ends on the day it is switched off. It ends years earlier, on the day people stop thinking of it.

How did the telegram end?

A short notice on Western Union's website said that, effective January 27, 2006, the company would discontinue all Telegram and Commercial Messaging services. The Washington Times reported that the message was posted without fanfare and couched in the language of lawyers and accountants. According to the Associated Press, Western Union was now focusing on money transfers and other financial services.

Why did almost nobody notice it go?

Because the ending had been underway for decades. Telegrams reached their peak popularity in the 1920s and 1930s, when a telegram was cheaper than a long-distance telephone call, and Western Union phased out its couriers in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In the 1980s, telegram profits fell and Western Union refocused on sending money, The Washington Times reported. In its last full year, only 20,000 telegrams were sent at about $10 a message, mostly by companies using them for formal notifications, a company spokesman told the Associated Press. The last 10 included birthday wishes, condolences and an emergency notification.

Watch the habit, not the switch

The shutdown notice was the least important event in the story. Each cheaper channel took away one reason to send a telegram, until what remained was ceremony.

A product in that state can look stable for years. Its users are loyal; its future users never learn it exists.

The useful question is not whether a service still works. It is whether anyone new would think to reach for it.

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