AOL Instant Messenger will be in the memory from December 15. Yes. The popular desktop messaging client will not work after December 15. This is a sad news for tech lovers who had worked with the messaging tool late 90’s and early 2000’s. According to Engadget, the discontinuation of AOL Instant Messenger is an end of an era.
Initially, the AIM was launched as an integrated chat application in AOL’s desktop client. However, the messenger was converted into a separate application 1997. During that time, Yahoo messenger and MSN messenger were also popular. The AOL messenger was widely trusted and used by working professionals to interact with their colleagues worldwide.
The analysts have predicted the great fall of AOL Instant Messenger when the company laid out its internal units in 2012. In 2017, the company shelved majority of the third-party services, which was a clear indication of the discontinuation of the tool.
The main reason for the closure of AOL Instant Messenger is due to the rapid growth of mobile messengers such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook Messenger and others. Nowadays, WhatsApp is being used by the majority of people and it enables them to interact with their friends and family on the go. Hence, the market share of desktop-based messengers like AOL has been substantially reduced.
Commenting on the development, Michael Albers, VP of communications, Oath disclosed that the way we communicate with each other hand changed. Hence, there is a need to tap the rich potential of the new digital technologies. Albers said that the company will continue to build next-generation products for customers all over the world.
That said, there is no point in the continuity of AOL Instant Messenger since the resources such as servers can be used for other projects. We don’t have any clear indication of the successor but reports suggest that Yahoo Messenger is under aggressive development. Recently, Yahoo refreshed the toll but it didn’t evoke any response from people.
Microsoft Skype is one of the best desktop messengers used by people worldwide. Even in the mobile world, we require desktop messengers so that we can interact with people efficiently. You can easily share links, files, and images over Skype. The desktop-based messengers cannot be avoided at any cost. We expect AOL to launch a mobile version of AOL messenger in 2018.
