14 DAY TRIAL // AIM, also known as AOL Instant Messenger, is shutting down today, as per the parent company’s original announcement released in October this year.
Extremely popular during the ‘90s, AIM has slowly but surely lost ground in the rapidly evolving instant messaging world, with large tech companies like Google and Facebook joining the battle with their own services.
Both Yahoo Messenger and AIM collapsed following the majority of users moving to products developed by these firms, and now the latter is shutting down its messaging app once and for all.
Parent company Oath hasn’t provided a reason for discontinuing its messenger, but it’s not difficult to imagine that the dropping number of users and the high costs of maintaining the infrastructure contributed to this decision.
Lots of alternatives to choose from
In the October announcement, the company recommended users to create a backup of all their data on AIM or lose it completely, with every single bit of data to be removed.
“We've loved working on AIM for you. From setting the perfect away message to that familiar ring of an incoming chat, AIM will always have a special place in our hearts. As we move forward, all of us at AOL (now Oath) are excited to continue building the next generation of iconic brands and life-changing products for users around the world,” the announcement read.
It goes without saying that there are many other alternatives to choose from on both desktop and mobile, including Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, iMessage, Skype, and others. All of them are free and provide features that weren’t available in AIM, so it’s unlikely too many people will miss the app.
If you were using AIM in the past and didn’t save your contact list or other data, you better hurry up and do it because in a few hours, the messenger will no longer be able to log in.