Bosco and Harris joined the program about 1996 and the buddy list flourished into instant messaging after overcoming hurdles of crashing and overloading servers. In the days of dial up internet, where an hourly fee was charged to be logged on to AOL, Appelman wanted a way to see if other AOL users were online.

The creation of AIM came from from the idea of creating a buddy list by Appelman in 1994. The program stemmed from three engineers Barry Appelman, Eric Bosco and Jerry Harris in the early 1990s.

AOL Instant Messenger was revolutionary during the time of new emerging technology in the 1990s. There were no emojis and no mobility, but you could pick your screen name and customize your profile. The user could add cool designs into your bio to personalize it and there was no fill in the blanks, so the creativity was endless. It included a buddy list where all your friends’ user names were saved and it showed their online or offline status. People of all ages were using AIM, from young middle schoolers to older working adults. Abbreviations like “GTG” and “TTYL” boomed through this system. AIM was the platform that encouraged online chatting and instant messenger lingo to take off. Available from only a desktop computer, it was one of the first instant chat systems created that spread far and wide. AOL Instant Messenger, AIM, was created in 1997 by AOL accidentally and became the leading instant messenger online chat system in North America.

On December 15, AOL Instant Messenger will be shutting down for the final time after 20 years of service.

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