{"id":9520,"date":"2017-10-06T18:35:31","date_gmt":"2017-10-06T18:35:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rsoftsolution.com\/blog\/aol-instant-messenger-is-shutting-down-after-20-years.html"},"modified":"2017-10-06T18:35:31","modified_gmt":"2017-10-06T18:35:31","slug":"aol-instant-messenger-is-shutting-down-after-20-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rbsitsoftwaresolution.in\/blog\/aol-instant-messenger-is-shutting-down-after-20-years.html","title":{"rendered":"AOL Instant Messenger is shutting down after 20 years"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

The pioneering chat app that taught us to text is pulling the plug. On December 15th, AOL Instant Messenger will shut down after running since<\/a> 1997. AIM dominated online chat in North America at the turn of the century. But with SMS and social apps like Facebook and WhatsApp having conquered chat, AOL is giving up the fight with no planned replacement.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cWe know there are so many loyal fans who have used AIM for decades; and we loved working and building the first chat app of its kind since 1997,\u201d AOL wrote on the AIM help page<\/a>. \u201cOur focus will always be on providing the kind of innovative experiences consumers want. We\u2019re more excited than ever to focus on building the next generation of iconic brands and life-changing products.\u201d<\/p>\n

TechCrunch reader Daniel Sinclair<\/a> tipped the shut-down to us, which follows the cut-off<\/a> of third-party apps back in March. Now AIM\u2019s official MacOS, Windows,\u00a0iOS<\/a> and Android apps are being pulled off life support.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom setting the perfect away message to that familiar ring of an incoming chat, AIM will always have a special place in our hearts,\u201d AOL wrote to users in an email<\/a>. People can download images they sent until December 15th, but the app\u2019s download links will start disappearing now. Unfortunately there\u2019s no way to save or port your buddy list.<\/p>\n

Initially the chat experience built into AOL desktop, AIM launched as a standalone app in 1997. Its iconic Away Messages were the ancestor to the modern tweet and status update. It battled for supremacy with competitors like ICQ, and messengers from Yahoo and Microsoft MSN. But eventually text messaging, Google\u2019s GChat and Facebook took over, while AIM never fully figured out the shift to mobile. That led to AOL\u2019s fall from grace, going from being valued at $224 billion in today\u2019s money to just $4.4 billion when it was sold to Verizon in 2015. For context on the business AOL let slip away, WhatsApp sold that same year to Facebook for more than $19 billion.<\/p>\n

\"\"Back in March, a former AOL employee told Ars Technica<\/a> that he estimated AIM usage had sunk to single-digit millions of users, and the cost of AOL keeping the OSCAR messaging protocol running became too high to justify.<\/p>\n

Regardless of [Disclosure] TechCrunch being owned by AOL, this moment is bittersweet for me. AIM taught me to write as 12-year old trying to navigate the world of grade-school friendship and romance. I was a shy kid who\u2019d fumble for words in person, but found my voice through the keyboard where I could compose and edit my thoughts before revealing them. After three straight all-night AIM chats, I asked out my first girlfriend, on pins and needles staring at my cathode ray tube until she agreed.<\/p>\n

AIM was a domain parents didn\u2019t understand, giving it a feeling of clandestine cool \u2014 akin to getting one\u2019s first car but for the internet generation. In fact, it was\u00a0what first convinced me that social technology would change the way we interact with each other so vividly that it was worth studying and eventually writing about for a living.<\/p>\n

So, farewell to AIM and my embarrassing screen name KDog313. Being a teenager will always sound like one of your incoming messages.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Article source: http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/techcrunch\/social\/~3\/27-qbSLwa0Y\/<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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