Snippet: AIM to Shut Down December 15 ☇

Michael Albers, VP of Communications Product at Oath (Verizon):

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. You likely remember the CD, your first screenname, your carefully curated away messages, and how you organized your buddy lists. Right now you might be reminiscing about how you had to compete for time on the home computer in order to chat with friends outside of school. You might also remember how characters throughout pop culture from “You’ve Got Mail” to “Sex and the City” used AIM to help navigate their relationships. In the late 1990’s, the world had never seen anything like it. And it captivated all of us.

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 December 15, 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.

When this site was in its infancy, I was communicating with other Mac nerds and real-life friends using AIM. It seems that the big shift away from AIM started with SMS and continued when The Facebook baked chat in. In my own use, iMessage was the final nail in the coffin, and I haven’t thought much of AIM in the last few years. Still, I do remember the days of waiting for the sign-in to happen over a dialup connection and the excitement of wasting some time after school and it does make me a bit nostalgic.