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In a few months, AOL Instant Messenger will go the way of such tech touchstones as 

 It was 20 years ago that "AIM" went online. It quickly exploded in popularity, peaked and then slowly succumbed to competitors.
For many of us, AIM conjures up memories of dial-up modems, the 

 and the phrase "You've Got Mail."
"AIM tapped into new digital technologies and ignited a cultural shift, but the way in which we communicate with each other has profoundly changed," 

, vice president of communications product at Oath Inc., a subsidiary of Verizon Communications that brought AOL and Yahoo together into a single unit earlier this year.


On Twitter, a social media platform that in no small way contributed to AIM's demise, people seemed a bit nostalgic but not terribly surprised.

"You likely remember the CD, your first screenname, your carefully curated away messages, and how you organized your buddy lists," Albers says. "In the late 1990's, the world had never seen anything like it. And it captivated all of us."


In fact, by 2001, AIM had captivated about 100 million of us worldwide, but as 


"We know there are so many loyal fans who have used AIM for decades; and we loved working and building the first chat app of its kind since 1997," AOL writes on the 

. "Our focus will always be on providing the kind of innovative experiences consumers want. We're more excited than ever to focus on building the next generation of iconic brands and life-changing products."
If you still have an AIM account, you can keep using it until December 15. After that, you will no longer be able to sign on.  Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Science

AOL Instant Messenger, with 100 million users at its peak in 2001, was overtaken by mobile text messaging and social media platforms such as Twitter. It will be shut down in December.

Once its AIM was true, but soon AOL's Instant Messenger will be no more

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