AIM (AOL Instant Messenger)
Born May 1997. Died 15 December 2017.
AIM passed on 15 December 2017, having lived twenty years as the primary means by which a generation learned to speak to one another in real time. Born in May 1997 in AOL’s laboratories, it introduced the Buddy List, the away message, and the sound of a door opening. At its peak in 2001, thirty-six million people used it; more than six million were often online at once. Its parent company cited the rise of mobile messaging. No replacement was offered. By the morning of 15 December, the servers had gone quiet. He is survived by every chat window that has replaced him. None has reproduced the particular intimacy of a friend’s name appearing on a list, of knowing they were there, and choosing to say nothing at all.
AIM tapped into new digital technologies and ignited a cultural shift, but the way in which we communicate with each other has profoundly changed.
Discontinued by parent company
Mourned by Those who came of age online in the early 2000s, teenagers who learned to type in the dark, and anyone who still hears the sound of a door opening when they remember a friend coming online.
The Buddy List, which lives on in every messaging app; the away message, which has no true successor; and the sound of a door opening, which thirty-six million people once knew by heart.