5 Instant Messaging Apps Only Millennials Will Remember – BGR

If you were born anywhere between 1981 and 1996, you might remember an internet that’s vastly different from the one we use today. Along with experiencing a smorgasbord of ’80s and ’90s nostalgia, millennials were one of the first generations to actually grow and mature alongside the internet. This means millennials have seen plenty of online trends come and go, including the rise of instant messaging apps.

For those that grew up in the era of landline phones and Blockbuster Video stores, we’re taking a look at some instant messaging apps that only millennials are likely to remember. Some of these messaging apps have some familiar names attached to them, and a few even lived far longer than one would think. From an instant messaging service delivered by a company that sent the internet out on CDs to messaging apps developed by now-defunct social media companies, we’re sorry if reading about these apps causes you to sprout another gray hair.

Though perusing this list of apps may make you realize how great it might feel to delete all your current social media, it can be fun to reflect on the old days of the internet. So grab your DVD collection and leave a new greeting on your answering machine as we take a journey down memory lane and look at some early messaging programs that helped shape the internet as we know it today.

Launched in May 1997, AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) was America Online’s messaging client. As a quick refresher, AOL was responsible for providing dial-up internet for over 30 years until it ultimately fell into the hands of Apollo Global Management in 2021. Developed by AOL programmers Eric Bosco and Barry Appleman, along with Jerry Harris, a web browser programmer, the project was originally a secret to executives at AOL, who dismissed the client for steering away from the company’s model of subscription-based services.

Despite executive disapproval, AIM nonetheless went on to change the internet as it grew in popularity quickly. What made AIM so prominent in the messaging industry (aside from being free) was that it helped pave the way for instant communication on the internet. As one of the first widely-used messaging platforms (it reached 36 million users at its peak), it helped popularize internet slang, such as A/S/L (age/sex/location). It also helped popularize what the company called Buddy Icons, which were stylized avatars that represented users.

Along with users being able to send each other messages, users could give themselves a screen name, have buddy lists (friends lists) and even send other users photos and videos. It even allowed for free phone and video calls later on. Unfortunately, AIM wasn’t able to keep up with newer messaging clients arriving, such as Skype and WhatsApp.

If AOL Instant Messenger was the Coca-Cola of early messaging apps, then MSN Messenger was the Pepsi. Launched by Microsoft in July 1999, it was meant to be a direct rival to other messaging services at the time. MSN Messenger started its journey as a text-based messaging client, and in its early days found itself in a war with AIM.

What made MSN Messenger unique was that it aligned itself with the rest of Microsoft’s suite of services, including Outlook and Hotmail. Users could connect to MSN Messenger through a Hotmail account, making access easy. However, what made the client interesting is that it constantly found ways in its early days to allow users to chat with AIM users through the MSN Messenger client, something AOL took umbrage at. AOL would eventually stop Microsoft’s tactics, though MSN Messenger would continue to evolve.

By 2003, the app was reaching 110 million monthly users, and features like Windows Media Integration and webcam calls helped the service expand. By 2005, MSN Messenger fell under the Windows Live branding, and Messenger would unite with Yahoo in 2006. However, Microsoft shut down MSN Messenger in March 2013 — though the app survived in China until October 2014. The company would start veering customers toward Skype (discontinued in 2025), leaving Messenger to be an iconic Windows app that faded into history. However, the spirit of MSN Messenger somewhat lives on through server emulators like Escargot.

While Yahoo was transitioning to being one of the top destinations on the internet, Yahoo Pager released in March 1998 and officially transitioned to Yahoo Messenger in June 1999. By the year 2000, Yahoo was making waves by partnering with Palm (who you may remember for creating the Palm Pilot personal digital assistant, or PDA) to have its messaging service added to its handheld computing devices.

Like other messaging apps at the time, Yahoo Messenger developed a variety of features, including real-time text-based chats, emoticons, and video calls in 2001. Along with the ability to send files or photos, Yahoo Messenger stood out from the others thanks to features like IMVironments, which were essentially themed backgrounds for your chat windows, as well as a “Buzz button,” which was a way to get a user’s attention if they took too long to respond.

During its peak, Yahoo Messenger was able to reach 122.6 million users, and the app itself continued to evolve throughout the years. In 2005, the app transformed into Yahoo Messenger with Voice 7.0 and included several phone features, such as the option to call landlines. By 2009, it had an iPhone app. However, Verizon bought Yahoo in 2016 after acquiring AOL, and the two companies were merged into one company known as Oath in 2017. While Yahoo Messenger survived this acquisition and merger, the app would find itself shutting down for good in July 2018.

While the actual instant messaging service may sound slightly unfamiliar, millennials are sure to recognize the company behind it. Officially launched in June 2007 (with a soft launch a year prior), MySpaceIM was sort of a middle ground between many of the instant messaging apps we’re covering on this list and the messaging apps owned by social media companies today. In fact, MySpaceIM is largely considered to be the first instant messaging program released by a social media platform.

At the time of its launch, Yahoo and MSN were at the top of the global charts, with AIM being No. 1 in the U.S. However, MySpace quickly partnered with Skype in October 2007, which helped the most popular social media app at the time connect the 25 million users on its instant messaging app to have access to phone calls. Users could have their own phone number if they paid for Skype’s premium features. However, just as MySpaceIM was beginning to gain traction, all of that changed when a little company known as Facebook began its stranglehold on social media in 2008.

Though there’s the potential to locate your old MySpace account, the site — and its messaging app — floundered. MySpaceIM moved to being solely in-browser through the social media site in 2009, and MySpace itself was sold in 2011. The website was sold for $35 million despite News Corp. paying $580 million for the site in 2005. Though MySpace is still technically around today, it has a much larger focus on music — though it still maintains some social networking functions.

With apps like MSN, Yahoo, and AIM helping popularize instant messaging, we have to take a look at the one that started it all: ICQ. Despite there being options prior to ICQ, such as Commodore’s Quantum Link (Q-Link) released in 1985, ICQ was the first instant messaging service that saw mass adoption across the internet. Beginning in November 1996, ICQ, or “I Seek You,” was developed by Mirabilis as a means to communicate while developing messaging technology for pagers.

Something about ICQ that made it special was the fact that it assigned users a User Identification Number (UIN) that served as a handle of sorts. Since the number assigned was based on when a user signed up for ICQ, accounts with lower numbers were often seen as a status symbol. The instant messaging service was also popular among gamers, as it allowed them to contact each other outside of playing.

Mirabilis was purchased by AOL in 1998, and despite passing more than 100 million users at one point, AOL still had cold feet when it came to promoting ICQ, as it was focused far more on AIM. ICQ was once again sold in 2010 to Russian social platform VKontakte (VK), and the company released a mobile app in 2014. While ICQ limped along for a number of years, it was finally put to rest in June 2024. It may be gone, but for many, it’s certainly not forgotten.