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One thing I'll miss about AIM is that it's a communication modality that doesn't exist right now. It was everywhere, and on MacOS it was integrated into the OS

One thing I'll miss about AIM is that it's a communication modality that doesn't exist right now. It was everywhere, and on MacOS it was integrated into the OS. For most people I knew, they had it set to join when they got on the computer. So it meant that you knew when your friends were at the computer, and you knew when you could have long "in the background" conversations with your friends. It was just a different level of intimacy - I had so many longer and interesting, sometimes deep conversations through AIM (or through iMessage hooked up with AIM). On a Mac at least, that's unlike anything we have now with facebook and Messenger.app. Now when you look at your buddy list, you have no idea whether they're at their computer or if they're busy or running around with their phone. I try to get my friends to join a Slack room with me, but we don't always have it started, or we're in a different Slack room. At any rate there just isn't that critical mass where you know someone is online and chattable.

FreakyT 9y ago
I completely agree! Today, as far as I know, only Facebook Messenger comes even close to supporting it. Specifically, Messenger can show you an "online now" tab, indicating who is currently at least using Messenger or Facebook, and can even show you "Active now" versus "Active 30m ago".
Jarwain 9y ago
I find Discord to fill this space in a slightly more effective way, although I don't believe they differentiate from mobile vs. computer use quite yet. However, I find a majority of my friends (and I personally) use discord mainly on desktop. I don't even have discord on my phone.
- esotericsean 9y ago
  I use Discord, but I only have it installed on my phone. More convenient that way.
  - binaryblitz 9y ago
    Do you actually use it for gaming?
- Andrenid 9y ago
  Discord has absolutely replaced AIM/MSN/ICQ/IRC for my friends. Everyone I care to chat to uses it, and has it on all their devices, including phone, as our primary messenger. My circle of friends is admittedly nearly entirely techies (and some finance crowd who seem to love Discord too).
swalsh 9y ago
There was a rip of some techno song I'd listen to often with the AIM door sound, always made me check AIM for some reason.
cgag 9y ago
I still used it pretty regularly until today. I only had like 2 people I talked to on it, but I like that we were all on it all the time and I was on it when I was otherwise unavailable online to everyone but those couple close friends.
thex10 9y ago
Completely agree. I miss this capability so much. Now with cell phones we're 'always online' but in a weird way less available (well. way more of my messages get ignored now than did my AIM chats).
wil421 9y ago
We have cellphones now no need to know when someone is online. AIM and AOL before it were great when you don’t have text. No one needs that now when you have texts app or snap chat. The one thing I do miss are times when you could just find a random classmates username and message them. When you do this with text it can be a little more awkward if you don’t know each other. Why do you need to know if a freind is only if you can text, iMessage or WhatsApp anyone in the world almost?
- wl 9y ago
  The point is that with AIM (or instant messenger, generally), you knew who was up for chatting. If someone wasn't up for chatting, they either would have an away message or wouldn't be signed on at all. Sure, I can text my friends at any hour. But they might be out at dinner. Or at a concert. Or trying to sleep.
  - jasonkostempski 9y ago
    I made quite a few friends as a result of friends-of-friends joining a chat, friend leaves for the night and the conversation continues even without the intermediary friend. That happens with IRL interactions sometimes too but not as often in my experience, usually everyone leaves if the links are broken. I don't think most people would continue a conversation with someone they didn't really know after they happened to be part of the same group text either.
    - eropple 9y ago
      Happens sometimes amongst my friend groups with Facebook groups. Though I also don't really have a problem with going "hey, I'm not headed home, want to go get a drink at the next place?" with folks I've just met through a friend, and nobody really ever seems to have a problem with the question.
  - adha 9y ago
    > The point is that with AIM (or instant messenger, generally), you knew who was up for chatting. If someone wasn't up for chatting, they either would have an away message or wouldn't be signed on at all. That's an interesting feature I think, but nothing is preventing that to be implemented on a new or current chat program. It would solve the distraction problem of always being available and online.
ryukafalz 9y ago
XMPP still supports this - mobile clients can self-report as such (most do), and desktop clients usually display whether someone's logged in from a mobile client or not.
et-al 9y ago
Yeah, there's a push towards asynchronous communication (e.g. Gchat -> Google Hangouts), but what makes real-time synchronous chat so great was the attention from both parties. When messages have a lag in response, there's generally not as much excitement and before you know it, one person is preoccupied with something else.
LocutusOfBorges 9y ago
Telegram Desktop comes pretty close to this ideal.
cylinder 9y ago
It was just a totally different type of online conversation ("convo") which doesn't exist anymore. You always initiated with a "hey" or "sup." It was considered rude to not say "gtg, bye" before signing off or even "brb" when stepping away for 5 mins. I will never know if the glory of my AIM days was due to being a teenager or just being a part of online chat during that special window of its history. WhatsApp group chat with my closest friends is definitely incredible, but a different experience.

FreakyT 9y ago

I completely agree! Today, as far as I know, only Facebook Messenger comes even close to supporting it. Specifically, Messenger can show you an "online now" tab, indicating who is currently at least using Messenger or Facebook, and can even show you "Active now" versus "Active 30m ago".

Jarwain 9y ago

I find Discord to fill this space in a slightly more effective way, although I don't believe they differentiate from mobile vs. computer use quite yet. However, I find a majority of my friends (and I personally) use discord mainly on desktop. I don't even have discord on my phone.

esotericsean 9y ago
I use Discord, but I only have it installed on my phone. More convenient that way.
- binaryblitz 9y ago
  Do you actually use it for gaming?
Andrenid 9y ago
Discord has absolutely replaced AIM/MSN/ICQ/IRC for my friends. Everyone I care to chat to uses it, and has it on all their devices, including phone, as our primary messenger. My circle of friends is admittedly nearly entirely techies (and some finance crowd who seem to love Discord too).

swalsh 9y ago

There was a rip of some techno song I'd listen to often with the AIM door sound, always made me check AIM for some reason.

cgag 9y ago

I still used it pretty regularly until today. I only had like 2 people I talked to on it, but I like that we were all on it all the time and I was on it when I was otherwise unavailable online to everyone but those couple close friends.

thex10 9y ago

Completely agree. I miss this capability so much. Now with cell phones we're 'always online' but in a weird way less available (well. way more of my messages get ignored now than did my AIM chats).

wil421 9y ago

We have cellphones now no need to know when someone is online. AIM and AOL before it were great when you don’t have text. No one needs that now when you have texts app or snap chat. The one thing I do miss are times when you could just find a random classmates username and message them. When you do this with text it can be a little more awkward if you don’t know each other. Why do you need to know if a freind is only if you can text, iMessage or WhatsApp anyone in the world almost?

wl 9y ago
The point is that with AIM (or instant messenger, generally), you knew who was up for chatting. If someone wasn't up for chatting, they either would have an away message or wouldn't be signed on at all. Sure, I can text my friends at any hour. But they might be out at dinner. Or at a concert. Or trying to sleep.
- jasonkostempski 9y ago
  I made quite a few friends as a result of friends-of-friends joining a chat, friend leaves for the night and the conversation continues even without the intermediary friend. That happens with IRL interactions sometimes too but not as often in my experience, usually everyone leaves if the links are broken. I don't think most people would continue a conversation with someone they didn't really know after they happened to be part of the same group text either.
  - eropple 9y ago
    Happens sometimes amongst my friend groups with Facebook groups. Though I also don't really have a problem with going "hey, I'm not headed home, want to go get a drink at the next place?" with folks I've just met through a friend, and nobody really ever seems to have a problem with the question.
- adha 9y ago
  > The point is that with AIM (or instant messenger, generally), you knew who was up for chatting. If someone wasn't up for chatting, they either would have an away message or wouldn't be signed on at all. That's an interesting feature I think, but nothing is preventing that to be implemented on a new or current chat program. It would solve the distraction problem of always being available and online.

ryukafalz 9y ago

XMPP still supports this - mobile clients can self-report as such (most do), and desktop clients usually display whether someone's logged in from a mobile client or not.

et-al 9y ago

Yeah, there's a push towards asynchronous communication (e.g. Gchat -> Google Hangouts), but what makes real-time synchronous chat so great was the attention from both parties. When messages have a lag in response, there's generally not as much excitement and before you know it, one person is preoccupied with something else.

LocutusOfBorges 9y ago

Telegram Desktop comes pretty close to this ideal.

cylinder 9y ago

It was just a totally different type of online conversation ("convo") which doesn't exist anymore. You always initiated with a "hey" or "sup." It was considered rude to not say "gtg, bye" before signing off or even "brb" when stepping away for 5 mins. I will never know if the glory of my AIM days was due to being a teenager or just being a part of online chat during that special window of its history. WhatsApp group chat with my closest friends is definitely incredible, but a different experience.