After 20 long years, AOL Instant Messenger is finally shutting down in December. Launching in 1997, the messaging service commonly referred to as AIM released their ‘One Last Away Message’ on Friday.
The news came from AIM’s parenting company Oath, a spin-off that was created after the merger of Verizon and AOL, with the details coming from the company’s VP of Communications Product Michael Albers:
AIM tapped into new digital technologies and ignited a cultural shift, but the way in which we communicate with each other has profoundly changed. As a result we’ve made the decision that we will be discontinuing AIM effective December 15, 2017. We are more excited than ever to continue building the next generation of iconic brands and life-changing products for users around the world.
Third-party access was shut off to AIM back in March but the app was still available through AOL’s chat apps.
No plans have been announced as to whether or not the AIM brand will be kept or even relaunched in the future but Abers did add that the company is “more excited than ever to continue building the next generation of iconic brands and life-changing products for users around the world.”