AOL Instant Messenger Shuts Down After 20 Glorious Years

It’s a sad day in the history of the internet. AOL announced Friday that AIM, its iconic instant messaging service, will officially shut down for good on Dec. 15.

Many of us probably have fond memories of logging onto the chat service. AOL’s AIM was undoubtedly a foundational part of many people’s early experience with the internet’s social aspects — and it gave an early glimpse at how popular social-fueled internet platforms would eventually become.

“If you were a 90’s kid, chances are there was a point in time when AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) was a huge part of your life,” AOL’s blog post reads. “In the late 1990’s, the world had never seen anything like it. And it captivated us all.”

But, alas, it is no longer the late 90s, and people don’t use AIM anymore. AOL said that the platform is no longer needed in today’s world. “AIM tapped into new digital technologies and invited a cultural shift, but the way in which we communicate with each other has profoundly changed,” said Michael Albers, VP of communications products at Oath (the Yahoo/AOL subsidiary now owned by Verizon).

AIM was one of the earlier instant messaging platforms available, and quickly became one of the most successful. It was widely used in the 90s and early 2000s. Of course, with the arrival of the smartphone and social media, iMessage and platforms like Facebook Messenger have utterly dominated the way we communicate.

Not that we didn’t see this coming. AOL cut off third-party chat access to AIM in March, giving an early hint that its days were numbered. And, with so few people actually using AIM today, it’s not likely that its shutdown will make a big impact. AIM now joins MSN Messenger — which shut down in 2014 — and Yahoo Messenger — shut down in 2016 — as relics of the past.

If you’re feeling nostalgic, AOL has created a hashtag, #AIMemories, so you can share your own experience with the platform.