AIM To Shut Down On December 15th
One of the pioneers of the instant messaging apps, AOL Instant Messenger is shutting down on December 15th 2017. The news comes 20 years after the launch of AIM, which became a wildly popular feature of AOL, the largest internet provider at the time.
Verizon acquired AOL in 2015 and merged it into a unit called Oath in 2017. VP of Oath said:
AIM tapped into new digital technologies and ignited a cultural shift, but the way in which we communicate with each other has profoundly changed. As a result we’ve made the decision that we will be discontinuing AIM effective 15 December, 2017. We are more excited than ever to continue building the next generation of iconic brands and life-changing products for users around the world.
AOL cut off access to AIM from third-party chat clients in March 2017, hinting that a shutdown is inevitable.With the likes of Facebook, WhatsApp and Snapchat taking over social media, it’s hard to imagine that many people are still using AIM. Keeping that in mind, it seems unlikely that this shutdown will affect anyone or anything.
This is not the first time that a classic IM app has shut down. MSN Messenger shut down in 2014, and Yahoo Messenger shut down in 2016 however, Yahoo launched a new messaging service under the same name.
One of the most widely used instant messenger back in ’90s and early 2000’s, AIM bridged the gap between friends who had moved to different places. With time, AIM fell down the pecking order as the era of smartphones reached the fore. Text messaging has taken over precedence over desktop instant messaging apps, and increasingly, social media apps like Snapchat and Instagram, are taking over text messaging in certain ways. Nowadays, everyone is connected to their long lost friends and relatives on Facebook which provides instant messaging solutions on the go.
