AOL’s instant messenger service, AIM, will shut down for good on December 15th. AOL announced the shutdown today. Aim has been running since 1997 – So for some saying goodbye to a 20 year old product may be hard.
The moves does not shock many. AOL cut off access to AIM from third-party chat clients back in March,
“AIM tapped into new digital technologies and ignited a cultural shift, but the way in which we communicate with each other has profoundly changed,” writes Michael Albers, communications products VP at Oath.
MSN Messenger shut down in 2014, which Microsoft replaced with Skype. Yahoo Messenger shut down last year. Yahoo, now part of Oath (A Verizon company), did launched a new messaging service under the same name.
Today with Snapchat, Skype, Allo, SMS, Twitter, Instagram, WeChat and Facebook most of us have moved on from the Yellow Man, but he will always have special place in the hearts of people that went online in the 90s.
