In the days of screen names, away messages, and buddy lists, AIM started and took over the instant messaging world. Under the super cool screen names of "billabongbaby" and "dancinqt94," I would spend hours each day on AIM, chatting with friends (sometimes even robots) and updating my profile.
AIM was the main medium through which I communicated with others, and I spent the majority of my free time there. But looking back, I cannot pinpoint what caused me to stop using the instant messaging device and when AIM really started to disappear. Luckily, Mashable posted an article about the "rise and fall of AIM" that provides readers with a detailed history of the messenger. I'll summarize their explanation...
In the 1990's, AOL became the dominant internet service provider in America, and users paid a monthly subscription fee to use it. One of its first features was being able to request to see if a certain user was online. As more and more people used AOL, and more and more people began trying to check if someone was online at once, crashes occurred more frequently, and the buddy list was born. The buddy list allowed users to see who and who was not online at the time, without having to specifically request knowing their status.
Shortly after the buddy list, AOL switched its subscription fee from an hourly rate to a flat fee for users. The flat flee fueled the more frequent presence of users online, and soon the service experienced further crashes within its messaging systems. A small team of AOL employees knew that something had to be done.. that a messenger tool needed to be created outside of the "garden walls" of the AOL system.
Behind the backs of AOL executives, the team produced AIM. They showed their final product to AOL, but the company, who charged subscription fees to members, was not pleased with the fact that a major tool of AOL would be provided for free. However, the messenger was released, without the support of the executives.
AIM was met with early success, and the struggle of "AIM versus AOL" emerged. "Every single executive wanted to shut it down and kill it." But AIM continued to flourish and soon expanded to 18 million users.
A great tool amongst employees in the workplace, "AIM became how all of Wall Street communicated," and at that point, there was no killing it. Some of the features that developed, many of them slipping past AOL, were warnings, the away message- labeled as a "corporate need"- and buddy icons. Later, more advanced developments were made with mobile chat and the voice call. These later developments were far ahead of any other communication tool, and AIM could be said to be almost before its time.
As AOL continued to express their lack of support for the messenger, AIM pushed to monetize itself through advertisements. However, they never ended up spending money on any outside ads and only ran promotions for AOL. Perhaps with funding through outside advertising, AIM could have continued to make further developments.
Another factor that contributed to its stagnancy in development was its refusal to work with third party developers. Outside companies wanted to create their own features for the messenger, but AIM rejected their ideas, because they were adamant about creating their own. Soon other messenger tools and social media applications arose, and AIM began to fall behind and become the "ghost town" that it is today.
It is crazy to think of the success of AIM, when it lacked major support from AOL. Perhaps if AOL would have worked to monetize the tool, take advertising opportunities, and allow outside developers to intervene, AIM could have been one of the first big names in social media. The story of AIM tells of the importance of monetization and of constant disruption of communication tools by the rise of new ones.
I personally think that my disconnect with AIM must have been a result of the acceptance of texting and Myspace. Texting allowed users to be more mobile, and Myspace encouraged more personalized profiles, opened conversations, and sharing of thoughts and comments.
Despite its shortcomings, AIM will not only be a valuable part of my childhood and early teen years, but it will be a valuable step in the history of progress of communication technology. Just think of all of the social media and communication applications that incorporate an instant messenger that reflects the original AIM in some way. From the days of 'billabongbaby' to today's Facebook, we continue to feel the AIM legacy that the instant messenger left behind.
For some further reminiscing about AIM, I suggest reading this Buzzfeed article on "The 15 Away Messages You Definitely had Growing Up."
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