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Major internet service provider AOL was dominating the market in the 1990s, not long after its founding in 1983. In that decade, AOL programmers worked on an app that had the ability to send instant digital messages to people. It was referred to as AOL Instant Messenger, or AIM, and it is not an understatement to say that internet culture would look very different today without it. Released in 1997, AIM was a resounding success. AOL also was innovative in launching an early AI chatbot. In 2001, AIM had 36 million users around the world, the height of its success and popularity.
This success, however, would not last. AIM struggled during the shift to smartphones, as users moved away from desktop chats toward smartphone-based communication. As smartphones became the primary way people communicated, users preferred apps that were designed specifically for mobile devices, including WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. Social networks such as Facebook didn’t just offer messaging; they embedded it within broader systems of photos, status updates, and media sharing, transforming messaging into one feature of a larger social platform. The “media” was now joining the “social”, and AOL just could not pivot in time. AIM officially shut down on December 15, 2017. With AIM now gone, it’s important to remember that none of what exists in its place today would be possible without it.
The impact of AOL’s AIM
AIM popularized personal screen names, emojis, and other marks of individuality in instant messaging. Reddit users reminisced about AOL’s app, sharing their old AIM names and posting memories such as “Keeping your AIM online so you can hear the door open sound, hoping it was your crush coming online,” and “Good old days of setting your status to something cool, hoping your crush will see it.”
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone posted on the social media site when AIM shut down, stating, “Twitter was inspired, to a degree, by the ‘away message’ in AIM.” Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg also posted on his platform that same year, stating that his early experiences with AIM “had a lot of the seeds of what would become Facebook,” and adding, “Thanks for everything, AIM.”
Now, instant messaging is so common that no one thinks twice about it. Competition for the user base is still strong, with WhatsApp planning to lure in Apple iMessage users. We text on our phones and use emojis, avatars, GIFs, and more to express ourselves. Though AOL Instant Messaging is no more, its footprint is there anytime we hit the send button to talk to friends, family, or even strangers online, both locally and around the world. So thank you, indeed, AIM.
