AOL Instant Messenger, one of the pioneering chat applications of the internet’s early days, will be discontinued from December 15. The shutdown comes almost two decades after the launch of AIM, which had become insanely popular. The shutdown comes 20 years after the launch of AIM, which became a wildly popular feature of AOL, the largest internet provider at the time. Verizon, which acquired AOL in 2015 and merged it into a unit called Oath this year, said it is looking at new services to replace the instant messenger. AOL has provided no specific user numbers but one report said fewer than 10 million people were regular AIM users.

Source: Hindustan Times October 07, 2017 05:37 UTC