AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) is a big part of the history of technology. Even if we don’t think about it, AIM led up to much of today’s technology. AIM, made by AOL (America Online), is an instant messenger that has been around since 1997. Now mostly forgotten, at one time it was a very popular messenger that allowed people to communicate in real time like many messengers today.

It was initially something called ‘AOL Desktop’ that mixed a web browser, a media player, and an instant messenger for Windows XP and Mac OS X 10.4.8, or later versions of both, releasing its last stable version on August 10th, 2015. There was also a stand alone download by America Online in May 1997 for Microsoft Windows, and they owned the largest share of the instant messaging market with 52% reported in 2006 (not including the other messaging software developed by AOL such as ICQ and iChat). Just because it was the highest, didn’t mean it didn’t have its own competitors, such as ICQ, Yahoo! Messenger, and MSN Messenger, and AOL’s biggest rival, Microsoft, starting in 1999. There were several attempts to log on simultaneously to AOL’s servers and their own, AOL wasn’t happy about this so they blocked MSN messenger from access to AIM.

While they were mobile from third party applications as early as 2002 with ‘Sidekick’, they officially went mobile when the application was released in 2008 for Windows mobile devices. In 2006 they made a feature called AIM for phone-line,  allowing people to receive and give calls to mobile or landline phones from a PC, with an unlimited plan for 15 dollars.

Around 2011 is when it started to lose popularity very quickly due to Google, SMS, and social networking websites for instant messaging. As of June 2011, one source reported their market share collapsed to 0.73%, and even that was only based on installed IM applications and not active users. On March 3, 2012, all of the developing team was cut while the service and even support still remain.

Of course, you couldn’t bring up AIM without the famous mascot, the yellow stick man figure known as the ‘running man’. Although it was removed during the rebranding in 2011, it got restored in August of 2013.

AIM wasn’t strong in security or privacy. The privacy policy states that they won’t read or monitor any private communications between users, on the other hand, public forums can be seen and used by AOL and its parent, affiliates, agents, licensees, and subsidiaries. AOL has told everyone that no unauthorized people have access, but that is not a promise; AIM had a feature that let you add people without them knowing, allowing them to see more about the person. Security was where it failed worst, getting a 1 out of 7 from the Electronic Frontier Foundation secure messaging scorecard. With many ways to exploit the system that would send viruses, kick off the AIM service, looking like harmless links from friends. Users also reported sudden additions of tool bars and advertisements in newer AIM versions. All that caused many people to leave AIM for more secure and reliable messaging apps.

Bots were also a huge part of AIM, you can find bots now on Skype, Telegram, Discord, etc. There were many popular bots such as Studybuddy, Spleak, Smarterchild, and ZolaOnAol. SmarterChild being one of the more popular, many consider it to be the predecessor to Siri, s voice, and ‘OK Google’, SmarterChild originally was a text based adventure game, but grew to be able to chat, sports, movies, assistant, calculator, translator and more. ZolaOnAol was a chat bot that was loved for its sense of humor.

AIM, while it is available for most platforms, has been long forgotten for better messengers such as SMS, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Telegram, Skype, etc. AIM remains a huge piece of tech history as it is where a lot of programs we enjoy today started.