It’s your last chance to A/S/L a stranger as AIM says good-bye

It’s an end of an era: AIM will be shutting down before the end of the year.

Launched as AOL (America Online) Instant Messenger, AIM as it came to be known, was an instant messaging pioneer. It was initially integrated into America Online but became a stand-alone app in May 1997. It was the king of the instant messaging space gobbling up as much as 52 percent of the market as late as 2006.

As mobile phones took off texting rapidly replaced instant messaging as the preferred form of communication. By March 3, 2012 AOL had shut down the development staff for AIM, but the program continued to hold on.

On Friday, however, the AIM site announced that the service would shut down for good on Dec. 15, 2017, closing the doors on the one-time behemoth of the instant communication field.

So, log in for one last go and make sure to ask someone A/S/L for old time’s sake. And if you can’t remember your login info, at least you can enjoy these classic sounds.

Article source: https://www.technobuffalo.com/2017/10/06/aim-shutting-down/