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113-536: AIM ( AOL Instant Messenger , sometimes stylized as aim ) was an instant messaging and presence computer program created by AOL , which used the proprietary OSCAR instant messaging protocol and the TOC protocol to allow registered users to communicate in real time. AIM was popular by the late 1990s, in United States and other countries, and was the leading instant messaging application in that region into

226-505: A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) accompanied by text suggesting the receiving user click on it, an action which leads to infection, i.e. , a trojan horse . These messages could easily be mistaken as coming from a friend and contain a link to a Web address that installed software on the user's computer to restart the cycle. On March 6, 2008, during Apple Inc. 's iPhone SDK event, AOL announced that they would be releasing an AIM application for iPhone and iPod Touch users. The application

339-521: A microphone , videotelephony using webcams , file transfer, location sharing, image and video transfer, voice notes, and other features. IM is conducted over the Internet or other types of networks (see also LAN messenger ). Depending on the IM protocol, the technical architecture can be peer-to-peer (direct point-to-point transmission) or client–server (when all clients have to first connect to

452-547: A stick man , stick woman , or stick person ) is a very simple drawing of a human or other animal, in which the limbs (arms and legs) and torso are represented using straight lines. The head is most often represented by a circle , which can be filled or unfilled. Details such as hands , feet , and a neck may be present or absent, and the head is sometimes embellished with details such as facial features or hair . Simpler stick figures often display disproportionate physical features and ambiguous emotion. The stick figure

565-464: A CIM provides the advantage of being inexpensive to implement and has little need for investing in new hardware or server software. IM is increasingly becoming a feature of enterprise software rather than a stand-alone application. Instant messaging has proven to be similar to personal computers, email, and the World Wide Web , in that its adoption for use as a business communications medium

678-628: A Unicode stick figure named Bob. There was an initial surge in popularity in April 2009, leading to a hostile response from the YouTube community wherein the community would flag the copypasta as spam. This spread of the copypasta would reach its peak in search interest around June 2010 before declining gradually. However, on September 24, 2013, YouTube announced that they would be integrating the YouTube Comments section with Google+. In response,

791-424: A chat, including games like Tetris and Blackjack . Discord features multiple games built inside the "activities" tab in voice channels . A relatively new feature to the world of instant messaging, peer-to-peer payments are available to do both financial tasks on top of communication. The lack of a service fee also makes these advantageous to financial applications. IM services such as Facebook Messenger and

904-480: A component of their overall platform, such as Facebook 's Facebook Messenger , who also own WhatsApp . Others have a direct IM function as an additional adjunct component of their social networking platforms , like Instagram , Reddit , Tumblr , TikTok , Clubhouse and Twitter ; this also includes for example dating websites , such as OkCupid or Plenty of Fish , and online gaming chat platforms. Private chat allows private conversation with another person or

1017-806: A day on Slack, which is about 67% more time than they spend using email . Instant messaging is implemented in many video-conferencing tools. A study of chat use during work-related videoconferencing found that chat during meetings allows participants to communicate without interrupting the meeting, plan action around common resources, and enables greater inclusion. The study also found that chat can cause distractions and information asymmetries between participants. Users sometimes make use of internet slang or text speak to abbreviate common words or expressions to quicken conversations or reduce keystrokes. The language has become widespread, with well-known expressions such as ' lol ' translated over to face-to-face language. Emotions are often expressed in shorthand, such as

1130-432: A decade earlier, Adobe had turned down an offer to buy FutureSplash in favor of their own Acrobat system. Now, the tables had turned and the corporation was buying flash's new owner for US$ 3.4 billion. With this acquisition, the program entered its final and most recognizable stage of development. Adobe spearheaded Flash animation for the next decade and a half, and it was during this period that Flash facilitated some of

1243-410: A different service. AIM Phoneline website was recommending users switch to a new service named AIM Call Out , also discontinued now. Launched on May 16, 2006, AIM Phoneline provided users the ability to have several local numbers, allowing AIM users to receive free incoming calls. The service allowed users to make calls to landlines and mobile devices through the use of a computer. The service, however,

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1356-439: A group. The privacy aspect can also be enhanced in a number of ways such as end to end encryption by default. Public and group chat features allow users to communicate with multiple people at a time. Many major IM services and applications offer a call feature for user-to-user voice calls, conference calls, and voice messages. The call functionality is useful for professionals who utilize the application for work purposes and as

1469-422: A half billion times with the vast majority of them being centered around stick figure animation. While Adobe Flash was the most popular stick figure animation tool, there were competitors, most notably Pivot Animator (formerly Pivot Stickfigure Animator). Created in 2005 by software developer Peter Bone, the program was specifically geared towards stick figure animation. Unlike Adobe Flash, which had grown into

1582-412: A hands-free method. Videotelephony using a webcam is also possible by some. Some IM applications include in-app games for entertainment. Yahoo! Messenger for example introduced these where users could play a game and viewed by friends in real-time. MSN Messenger featured a number of playable games within the interface. Facebook's Messenger has had a built in option to play games with people in

1695-417: A highly complex 2D animation environment, Pivot Animator, with its simplicity allowed virtually anyone to create stick figure animations without requiring any form of expertise. This brought the ability to create and distribute quality stick animations to a much greater audience than before, and alongside Flash, Pivot Animator soon became another central tool for the countless Internet users who were caught up in

1808-420: A key to which the provider has no access, i.e. , the communications are not end-to-end encrypted , users can't verify contacts' identities, past messages are not secure if the encryption keys are stolen, ( i.e. , the service does not provide forward secrecy ), the code is not open to independent review, ( i.e. , the code is not open-source ), the security design is not properly documented, and there has not been

1921-579: A marketing strategy and for unique advertising options. It was used by advertisers to market products or build better consumer relations. Before the inclusions of such bots, the other bots DoorManBot and AIMOffline provided features that were provided by AOL for those who needed it. ZolaOnAOL and ZoeOnAOL were short-lived bots that ultimately retired their features in favor of SmarterChild . AOL Instant Messenger's installation process automatically installed an extra URI scheme ("protocol") handler into some Web browsers, so URIs beginning with aim: could open

2034-456: A new AIM window with specified parameters. This was similar in function to the mailto: URI scheme, which created a new e-mail message using the system's default mail program. For instance, a webpage might have included a link like the following in its HTML source to open a window for sending a message to the AIM user notarealuser : To specify a message body, the message parameter was used, so

2147-478: A new account that would not automatically be blocked and therefore able to track their status. A more conservative privacy option was to select a menu feature that only allowed communication with users on one's buddy list; however, this option also created the side-effect of blocking all users who were not on one's buddy list. Users could also choose to be invisible to all. AOL and various other companies supplied robots (bots) on AIM that could receive messages and send

2260-1047: A new platform called Microsoft Office Live Communications Server , and released Office Communications Server 2007 in October 2007. Oracle Corporation also jumped into the market with its Oracle Beehive unified collaboration software. Both IBM Lotus and Microsoft have introduced federation between their EIM systems and some of the public IM networks so that employees may use one interface to both their internal EIM system and their contacts on AOL, MSN, and Yahoo. As of 2010, leading EIM platforms include IBM Lotus Sametime , Microsoft Office Communications Server , Jabber XCP and Cisco Unified Presence. Industry-focused EIM platforms such as Reuters Messaging and Bloomberg Messaging also provide IM abilities to financial services companies. Crackers (malicious or black hat hackers) have consistently used IM networks as vectors for delivering phishing attempts, drive-by URLs , and virus-laden file attachments, with over 1100 discrete attacks listed by

2373-410: A notable new example of traditional IM originally designed for desktops. Most IM protocols are proprietary and are not designed to be interoperable with others, meaning that many IM networks have been incompatible and users have been unable to reach users on other networks. As of 2024, fragmentation of IM services means that a typical user is likely to have to use more networks than ever, including

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2486-450: A personal website . Animations of stick figures made up the majority of its content, and several animators such as Terkoiz and Edd Gould released their first animations there. The site shut down in 2013. Stick Page , formerly known as 'Stickmen', was founded in 1999 by Jason 'Crazy Jay' Whitham. The site eventually became a central forum for stick figure animators to upload animations and games. It merged with FluidAnims in 2012. In 2020,

2599-433: A phone number ( text messaging is less functional than instant messaging). AIM Phoneline was a Voice over IP PC-PC, PC-Phone and Phone-to-PC service provided via the AIM application. It was also known to work with Apple's iChat Client. The service was officially closed to its customers on January 13, 2009. The closing of the free service caused the number associated with the service to be disabled and not transferable for

2712-467: A pop-up browser window. It was intended for use by people who are unwilling or unable to install a standalone application or those at computers that lack the AIM application. AIM Express supported many of the standard features included in the stand-alone client, but did not provide advanced features like file transfer, audio chat, video conferencing, or buddy info. It was implemented in Adobe Flash . It

2825-438: A recent independent security audit. BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) , Ebuddy XMS , Hushmail , Kik Messenger , Skype , Viber , and Yahoo! Messenger also scored one out of seven points. Instant messaging Instant messaging systems facilitate connections between specified known users (often using a contact list also known as a "buddy list" or "friend list") or in chat rooms , and can be standalone apps or integrated into

2938-434: A reported 100 million users of instant messaging in 2001. As of 2003, AIM was the globally most popular instant messenger with 195 million users and exchanges of 1.6 billion messages daily. By 2006, AIM controlled 52 percent of the instant messaging market, but rapidly declined shortly thereafter as the company struggled to compete with other services. Instant messaging integrated in other services started picking up pace in

3051-458: A response based on the bot's purpose. For example, bots could help with studying, like StudyBuddy. Some were made to relate to children and teenagers, like Spleak . Others gave advice. The more useful chat bots had features like the ability to play games, get sport scores, weather forecasts or financial stock information. Users were able to talk to automated chat bots that could respond to natural human language. They were primarily put into place as

3164-405: A result, it was possible for users to keep other unsuspecting users on their buddy list to see when they were online, read their status and away messages, and read their profiles. There was also a Web API to display one's status and away message as a widget on one's webpage. Though one could block a user from communicating with them and seeing their status, this did not prevent that user from creating

3277-455: A rivalry or "chat war" with PowWow and Microsoft , starting in 1999. There were several attempts from Microsoft to simultaneously log into their own and AIM's protocol servers. AOL was unhappy about this and started blocking MSN Messenger from being able to access AIM. This led to efforts by many companies to challenge the AOL and Time Warner merger on the grounds of antitrust behaviour, leading to

3390-413: A separate request for permission. AIM's security was called into question. AOL stated that it had taken great pains to ensure that personal information will not be accessed by unauthorized members, but that it cannot guarantee that it will not happen. AIM was different from other clients, such as Yahoo! Messenger , in that it did not require approval from users to be added to other users' buddy lists. As

3503-416: A separately installed piece of software, or a browser-based client. They are normally centralised networks run by the servers of the platform's operators, unlike peer-to-peer protocols like XMPP . These usually only work within the same IM network, although some allow limited function with other services (see #Interoperability ). Third party client software applications exist that will connect with most of

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3616-474: A system of conveying warnings, statistics, and general information through standardized and easily understandable pictographs. Neurath made significant use of stick figure designs to represent individuals and statistics. In 1934, graphic designer Rudolf Modley founded Pictorial Statistics Inc., and brought ISOTYPE to the United States in 1972. The first international use of stick figures dates back to

3729-602: A type of graphical user interface (GUI), albeit much more primitive than the later Unix , Windows and Macintosh based GUI IM software. OLMs were what Q-Link called "Plus Services" meaning they charged an extra per-minute fee on top of the monthly Q-Link access costs. Development of the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) protocol began in 1989, and this would become the Internet's first widespread instant messaging standard. Modern, Internet-wide, GUI -based messaging clients as they are known today, began to take off in

3842-797: A unified standard. In 2022, the European Union passed the Digital Markets Act , which largely came into effect in early 2023. Among other things, the legislation mandates certain interoperability between the largest IM platforms in use in Europe. As a result, in March 2024, Meta Platforms opened up its WhatsApp and Messenger networks to be interoperable. There are two ways to combine the many disparate protocols: Some approaches allow organizations to deploy their own, private instant messaging network by enabling them to restrict access to

3955-506: A user to see what the other is typing as it is being done. It was developed and built with assistance from Trace Research and Development Centre at University of Wisconsin–Madison and Gallaudet University . The application provides visually impaired users the ability to convert messages from text (words) to speech. For the application to work users must have AIM 6.8 or higher, as it is not compatible with older versions of AIM software, AIM for Mac or iChat. This feature allows text messaging to

4068-459: A website, an official Twitter, and a YouTube channel. Hyun's Dojo Community's first video was posted on December 30, 2012; followed by "Hyun's Dojo Promo" on March 9, 2013; "The Dojo Collab" on August 23, 2013; and finally, "Hyun's Dojo - Create Together" on August 24, 2013. Around 2015, Hyunsdojo.com was created, followed by a Discord server as a hub for animators and community members to collaborate and communicate with one another. In that time,

4181-574: A white background. As the fight gets increasingly intense, more tools including a bow and arrow, rocket launchers, and duplication abilities are introduced before the battle comes to a violent conclusion. "Xiao Xiao" quickly became the most popular Flash animation ever created. The animation spawned several imitations, and became the blueprint for a subgenre of 2D animation that has since garnered hundreds of millions of views. On December 3, 2005, Adobe Systems Inc . acquired Macromedia, once again rebranding Macromedia's now ubiquitous Flash software. Almost

4294-450: A wider social media platform, or in a website where it can for instance be used for conversational commerce . Originally the term "instant messaging" was distinguished from " text messaging " by being run on a computer network instead of a cellular/mobile network, being able to write longer messages, real-time communication, presence ("status"), and being free (only cost of access instead of per SMS message sent). Instant messaging

4407-435: Is a closed protocol that third parties had to reverse-engineer. In January 2008, AOL introduced experimental Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) support for AIM, allowing AIM users to communicate using the standardized, open-source XMPP. However, in March 2008, this service was discontinued. In May 2011, AOL started offering limited XMPP support. On March 1, 2017, AOL announced (via XMPP-login-time messages) that

4520-443: Is a universally recognizable symbol—likely one of the most well-known in the world. Drawings of stick figures transcend language, location and demographic, and the stick figure's roots can be traced back to over 30,000 years ago. Stick figures are often drawn by children , and their simplicity and versatility have led to their use in infographics , signage , animations , storyboards , and many other kinds of visual media. Following

4633-458: Is called Open System for CommunicAtion in Realtime (OSCAR). Most AOL-produced versions of AIM and popular third party AIM clients use this protocol. However, AOL also created a simpler protocol called TOC that lacks many of OSCAR's features, but was sometimes used for clients that only require basic chat functionality. The TOC/TOC2 protocol specifications were made available by AOL, while OSCAR

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4746-443: Is in direct contrast to email , where conversations are not in real-time, and the perceived quasi- synchrony of the communications by the users (although many systems allow users to send offline messages that the other user receives when logging in). Earlier IM networks were limited to text-based communication, not dissimilar to mobile text messaging . As technology has moved forward, IM has expanded to include voice calling using

4859-532: The 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo . Pictograms created by Japanese designers Masaru Katsumi and Yoshiro Yamashita formed the basis of future pictograms. In 1972, Otto "Otl" Aicher designed round-ended, geometric, grid-based stick figures to be used in the signage , printed materials, and television broadcasts for the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich . In 1974, the U.S. Department of Transportation commissioned

4972-594: The American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) to develop the DOT pictograms , 34 (later 50) symbols for use at transportation hubs, public spaces, large events, and other contexts in which there may be great linguistic variation among those required to understand the signage. These pictograms featured stick figures heavily, drawing on previous designs, such as those made for the 1972 Summer Olympics. These symbols, or symbols derived from them, are widely used throughout

5085-620: The Indalo in Spain. As language began to develop, logographies (writing systems that use images, rather than letters, to represent words or morphemes ) came to use stick figures as glyphs. In Mandaean manuscripts , uthras (celestial beings) were illustrated using stick figures. In 1925, Austrian sociologist Otto Neurath began work on what would become the International System of Typographic Picture Education ( ISOTYPE ),

5198-411: The U.S. patent office . Meanwhile, other companies developed their own software; ( Excite , Microsoft (MSN) , Ubique , and Yahoo! ), each with its own proprietary protocol and client ; users therefore had to run multiple client applications if they wished to use more than one of these networks. However, the open protocol IRC continued to be popular by the millenium, and its most popular graphical app

5311-550: The WeChat ' super-app ' for example offer a payment feature. Though the term dates from the 1990s, instant messaging predates the Internet, first appearing on multi-user operating systems like Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS) and Multiplexed Information and Computing Service ( Multics ) in the mid-1960s. Initially, some of these systems were used as notification systems for services like printing, but quickly were used to facilitate communication with other users logged into

5424-498: The server (often with the IM network entirely behind their firewall ) and administer user permissions. Other corporate messaging systems allow registered users to also connect from outside the corporation LAN, by using an encrypted, firewall-friendly, HTTPS-based protocol. Usually, a dedicated corporate IM server has several advantages, such as pre-populated contact lists, integrated authentication, and better security and privacy. Instant messaging has changed how people communicate in

5537-530: The 1980s, some systems incorporated chat features which were similar to instant messaging; Freelancin' Roundtable was one prime example. The first such general-availability commercial online chat service (as opposed to PLATO, which was educational) was the CompuServe CB Simulator in 1980, created by CompuServe executive Alexander "Sandy" Trevor in Columbus, Ohio . As networks developed,

5650-445: The 2010s, as Gmail 's Google Talk , SMS, and Internet social networks, like Facebook gained popularity. Its fall has often been compared with other once-popular Internet services, such as Myspace . In June 2015, AOL was acquired by Verizon Communications . In June 2017, Verizon combined AOL and Yahoo into its subsidiary Oath Inc. (now called Yahoo ). The company discontinued AIM as a service on December 15, 2017. In May 1997, AIM

5763-561: The AOL XMPP gateway would be desupported, effective March 28, 2017. For privacy regulations, AIM had strict age restrictions. AIM accounts are available only for people over the age of 13; children younger than that were not permitted access to AIM. Under the AIM Privacy Policy, AOL had no rights to read or monitor any private communications between users. The profile of the user had no privacy. In November 2002, AOL targeted

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5876-558: The IM Security Center in 2004–2007. Hackers use two methods of delivering malicious code through IM: delivery of viruses, trojan horses , or spyware within an infected file, and the use of "socially engineered" text with a web address that entices the recipient to click on a URL connecting him or her to a website that then downloads malicious code. IM connections sometimes occur in plain text , making them vulnerable to eavesdropping. Also, IM client software often requires

5989-520: The Quantum Link client software ran on a Commodore 64 , using only the Commodore's PETSCII text-graphics, the screen was visually divided into sections and OLMs would appear as a yellow bar saying "Message From:" and the name of the sender along with the message across the top of whatever the user was already doing, and presented a list of options for responding. As such, it could be considered

6102-571: The Stick Page forum closed shortly after Adobe announced the discontinuation of Adobe Flash Player , on which the site relied—the website's main domain is still running. On April 19, 2001, Chinese animator Zhu Zhiqiang uploaded a 75-second-long video titled " Xiao Xiao " on the newly formed Newgrounds animation portal, inspired by over-the-top Hong Kong martial arts films . Accompanied by bit-crushed audio samples, it shows two simple stick figures fighting with their fists and various weapons over

6215-783: The Unix "talk" command line program, which was popular in the 1980s and early 1990s. Some BBS chat programs (i.e. Celerity BBS ) also used a similar interface. Modern implementations of real-time text also exist in instant messengers, such as AOL's Real-Time IM as an optional feature. In the latter half of the 1980s and into the early 1990s, the Quantum Link online service for Commodore 64 computers offered user-to-user messages between concurrently connected customers, which they called "On-Line Messages" (or OLM for short), and later "FlashMail." Quantum Link later became America Online and made AOL Instant Messenger (AIM, discussed later). While

6328-523: The YouTube community brought back the Bob copypasta in a new form, with Bob "building an army" against Google+. This resulted in the biggest spike in popularity for the copypasta, reaching its peak popularity in November 2013. In July 2017, Adobe Systems, which had continued to support and develop both Flash Animator and Flash Player for the past 12 years, announced that they would officially end support for

6441-414: The abbreviation LOL , BRB and TTYL ; respectively laugh(ing) out loud, be right back, and talk to you later. Some, however, attempt to be more accurate with emotional expression over IM. Real time reactions such as ( chortle ) ( snort ) ( guffaw ) or ( eye-roll ) have been popular at one point. Also there are certain standards that are being introduced into mainstream conversations including, '#' indicates

6554-490: The ability to send voice messages up to 60 seconds long. On April 3, 2010, Apple released the first generation iPad . Along with this newly released device AOL released the AIM application for iPad. It was built entirely from scratch for the new version of iOS with a specialized user-interface for the device. It supported geolocation, Facebook status updates and chat, Myspace , Twitter , YouTube , Foursquare , and many other social networking platforms. AIM Express ran in

6667-525: The advent of the World Wide Web , the stick figure saw prominent use in Flash animation . The stick figure long predates modern civilisation. Stick figures were a feature of prehistoric art , and can be found in cave paintings and petroglyphs . Stick figure depictions of people, animals, and daily life have been discovered in numerous sites all over the world, such as depictions of Mimi in Australia or

6780-487: The central server). Major IM services are controlled by their corresponding companies and usually follow the client–server model. The term "Instant Messenger" is a service mark of Time Warner and may not be used in software not affiliated with AOL in the United States. For this reason, in April 2007, the instant messaging client formerly named Gaim (or gaim) announced that they would be renamed " Pidgin ". Modern IM services generally provide their own client, either

6893-500: The coming months and years. Despite the impending discontinuation of Flash, its final years saw the release of some of the most popular and most polished stick figure animations and games of all time. Notable examples include the Henry Stickmin series (August 7, 2020) and the half-hour long "Animator vs. Animation V" (December 5, 2020). Finally, on January 12, 2021, all instances of Flash Player ceased operation and Adobe Flash

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7006-514: The community was composed mostly of stick figure animators that popularized the art and animation form. However, the community has expanded past stick figures throughout the years. As of March 2021, the YouTube channel has reached over 2 million subscribers. The community posted a collaboration to celebrate the occasion. The channel slowly continues to grow in influence in the Internet stick figure community. At some point between June 2008 and April 2009, an Internet copypasta began to appear featuring

7119-528: The corporate industry with Enterprise AIM Services (EAS), a higher security version of AIM. If public content was accessed, it could be used for online, print or broadcast advertising, etc. This was outlined in the policy and terms of service: "... you grant AOL, its parent, affiliates, subsidiaries, assigns, agents and licensees the irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide right to reproduce, display, perform, distribute, adapt and promote this Content in any medium". This allowed anything users posted to be used without

7232-495: The corporation. Similar to the e-mail filtering vendors, the IM security providers focus on the risks and liabilities described above. With rapid adoption of IM in the workplace, demand for IM security products began to grow in the mid-2000s. By 2007, the preferred platform for the purchase of security software had become the " computer appliance ", according to IDC, who estimated that by 2008, 80% of network security products would be delivered via an appliance. By 2014 however,

7345-630: The defunct AIM Phoneline service in November 2007. It did not depend on the AIM client and could be used with only an AIM screenname via the WebConnect feature or a dedicated SIP device. The AIM Call Out service was shut down on March 25, 2009. On November 4, 2014, AIM scored one out of seven points on the Electronic Frontier Foundation 's secure messaging scorecard. AIM received a point for encryption during transit, but lost points because communications are not encrypted with

7458-408: The following decade. Teens and college students were known to use the messenger's away message feature to keep in touch with friends, often frequently changing their away message throughout a day or leaving a message up with one's computer left on to inform buddies of their ongoings, location, parties, thoughts, or jokes. AIM's popularity declined as AOL subscribers started decreasing and steeply towards

7571-574: The formation of the OpenNet Coalition . Official mobile versions of AIM appeared as early as 2001 on Palm OS through the AOL application. Third-party applications allowed it to be used in 2002 for the Sidekick . A version for Symbian OS was announced in 2003 as were others for BlackBerry and Windows Mobile After 2012, stand-alone official AIM client software included advertisements and

7684-509: The genre's history. In January 2018, a YouTuber named Ben Latimore, going by the online handle BlueMaxima, created Flashpoint Archive , an open-source project aiming to preserve the functionality of many Flash animations and games. It became a large library—"Xiao Xiao", the Shock series, wpnFire , Storm the House , and countless other stick figure games and animations were saved and archived over

7797-780: The iconic logo disappeared as part of the AIM rebranding in 2011. However, in August 2013, the "Running Man" returned. It was used for other AOL services like AOL Top Speed and is still featured in a theme on AOL Mail . In 2014, a Complex editor called it a "symbol of America". In April 2015, the Running Man was officially featured in the Virgin London Marathon , dressed by a person for the AOL-partnered Free The Children charity. The standard protocol that AIM clients used to communicate

7910-412: The late 2000s. Myspace , the then-largest social networking service , launched Myspace IM in 2006, shortly after Google 's Gtalk , which was integrated into its Gmail webmail interface. Facebook Chat launched in 2008, providing IM to users of the social network. By 2010, traditional instant messaging was in sharp decline in favor of these new messaging features on wider social networks, which at

8023-458: The level of safety offered by instant messengers was still extremely poor. According to a scorecard made by the Electronic Frontier Foundation , only 7 out of 39 instant messengers received a perfect score, whereas the most popular instant messengers at the time only attained a score of 2 out of 7. A number of studies have shown that IM services are quite vulnerable for providing user privacy. Stick figure A stick figure (also known as

8136-476: The link location would have looked like this: To specify an away message, the message parameter was used, so the link location would have looked like this: When placing this inside a URL link, an AIM user could click on the URL link and the away message "Hello, my name is Bill" would instantly become their away message. To add a buddy, the addbuddy message was used, with the "screenname" parameter This type of link

8249-785: The major IM services. There is the class of instant messengers that uses the serverless model, which doesn't require servers, and the IM network consists only of clients. There are several serverless messengers: RetroShare , Tox , Bitmessage , Ricochet , Ring . See also: LAN messenger . Some examples of popular IM services today include Signal , Telegram , WhatsApp Messenger , WeChat , QQ Messenger , Viber , Line , and Snapchat . The popularity of certain apps greatly differ between different countries. Certain apps have emphasis on certain uses - for example Skype focuses on video calling , Slack focuses on messaging and file sharing for work teams, and Snapchat focuses on image messages. Some social networking services offer messaging services as

8362-426: The mid-1990s with PowWow , ICQ , and AOL Instant Messenger (AIM). Similar functionality was offered by CU-SeeMe in 1992; though primarily an audio/video chat link, users could also send textual messages to each other. AOL later acquired Mirabilis , the authors of ICQ; establishing dominance in the instant messaging market. A few years later ICQ (then owned by AOL) was awarded two patents for instant messaging by

8475-424: The most recognizable stick figure animations and games of all time. Created by animator, YouTuber, and artist Alan Becker , the first episode of Animator vs. Animation premiered on Newgrounds on June 3, 2006, using flash animation . It showed a stick figure fighting to break out of the animation program it was created in. The video has garnered almost 80 million views since its publication. As of December 2023,

8588-457: The most widely used smartphone apps: in 2018 for instance there were 980 million monthly active users of WeChat and 1.3 billion monthly users of WhatsApp , the largest IM network. Instant messaging (IM), sometimes also called "messaging" or " texting ", consists of computer-based human communication between two users ( private messaging ) or more ( chat room or "group") in real-time, allowing immediate receipt of acknowledgment or reply. This

8701-462: The need for formal agreements, and security concerns as reasons for making changes. There have been several attempts in the past to create a unified standard for instant messaging, including: Critics say AOL's slowness in embracing interoperability has caused setbacks to other companies trying to grow their businesses. AOL has said it supports the development of an interoperable system for all IM networks but has cited privacy and security concerns as

8814-622: The need to download the apps and signing up, to stay in touch with all their contacts. However, there had been attempts for solutions. Multi-protocol clients can use any of the IM protocols by using additional local libraries for each protocol. Examples of multi-protocol instant messenger software include Pidgin and Trillian , and more recently Beeper . These third-party clients have often been unable to keep up due to proprietary protocol restrictions and getting locked out of it. For instance, in 2015 WhatsApp started banning users who were using unofficial clients. Major IM providers usually cite

8927-475: The need to run multiple clients. Video calling using a webcam also started taking off during this time. Microsoft's NetMeeting , which was focused on business " web conferencing ", was one of the earliest; the company then launched Windows Messenger , coming preloaded on Windows XP , featuring video capabilities. Yahoo! Messenger added video capabilities in 2001, and by 2005 such features were built-in also in AIM, MSN Messenger , and Skype . There were

9040-665: The program by the end of the decade. This decision had far-reaching consequences as it entailed not only the end of development on the software but also the official end of sites that still supported Flash and the deactivation of virtually every instance of Flash player via a built-in kill switch . A number of safety issues and more versatile alternatives like HTML5 had rendered Flash obsolete. Flash advocates and fans called for preservation efforts to ensure not all games, animations and other types of Flash media would be lost forever. Following Adobe's announcement of their intention to retire Flash, online communities began efforts to preserve

9153-508: The protocols spread with the networks. Some of these used a peer-to-peer protocol (e.g. talk , ntalk and ytalk), while others required peers to connect to a server (see talker and IRC ). The Zephyr Notification Service (still in use at some institutions) was invented at MIT's Project Athena in the 1980s to allow service providers to locate and send messages to users. Early instant messaging programs were primarily real-time text , where characters appeared as they were typed. This includes

9266-656: The reasons it's taking its time. Competitors have labeled that argument a "smoke screen." Evan Hansen, CNET , January 2001 In the early 2000s when instant messaging was quickly growing, most attempts at producing a unified standard for the-then major IM providers ( AOL , Yahoo! , Microsoft ) had failed. There was a "bitter row" between AOL and its rivals regarding the opening up of their networks. In 2000, U.S. regulatory Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposed, and supported by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates , that AOL providing interoperability of its AIM and ICQ instant messengers with Microsoft's MSN Messenger

9379-469: The same machine. CTSS facilitated communication via text message for up to 30 people. Parallel to instant messaging were early online chat facilities, the earliest of which was Talkomatic (1973) on the PLATO system, which allowed 5 people to chat simultaneously on a 512 x 512 plasma display (5 lines of text + 1 status line per person). During the bulletin board system (BBS) phenomenon that peaked during

9492-574: The series contains six main episodes and a number of spin-offs, among them include the video "Animation vs. Minecraft ", which has gained over 305 million views as of March 2022. The sixth in the series of episodes features multiple styles of stick figures, including a cave painting character, a stickman similar to the one in Stickman vs. Wall, a figure seemingly from Pivot Animator, and a figure based on those in DOT pictograms . In total, all of Alan Becker's animation videos have been watched over four and

9605-585: The time were not normally called IM. For instance, AIM 's userbase had declined by more than half throughout the year 2011. Standalone instant messenger services were revived, evolving into becoming primarily being used on mobile due to the increasing use of Internet-enabled cell phones and smartphones . Often called "chat apps", to distinguish it from cellular -based SMS and MMS " texting " services, these newer services were specially designed to be run on mobile platforms, as opposed to older services like AIM and MSN; BlackBerry Messenger , released in 2005,

9718-404: The trend. Around 2012, popular stick figure animator Hyun created a brand new stick figure community after the shut down of FluidAnims. Hyun's Dojo is a primarily animation community, owned by the titular animator, which hosts collaborations, crossovers, and the popular Dojo duels wherein two animators create animated fights against one another for points known as "Rice". The community consists of

9831-490: The update was a brand new iOS application for iPhone and iPod Touch that incorporated all the latest features. A brand new icon was used for the application, featuring the new cursive logo for AIM. The user-interface was entirely redone for the features including: a new buddy list, group messaging, in-line photos and videos, as well as improved file-sharing. Version 5.0.5, updated in March 2012, it supported more social stream features, much like Facebook and Twitter, as well as

9944-465: The use of sarcasm in a statement and '*' which indicates a spelling mistake and/or grammatical error in the prior message, followed by a correction. Instant messaging products can usually be categorised into two types: Enterprise Instant Messaging (EIM) and Consumer Instant Messaging (CIM). Enterprise solutions use an internal IM server, however this is not always feasible, particularly for smaller businesses with limited budgets. The second option, using

10057-488: The user to expose open UDP ports to the world, raising the threat posed by potential security vulnerabilities. In the early 2000s, a new class of IT security provider emerged to provide remedies for the risks and liabilities faced by corporations who chose to use IM for business communications. The IM security providers created new products to be installed in corporate networks for the purpose of archiving, content-scanning, and security-scanning IM traffic moving in and out of

10170-427: The website's popularity, Fulp introduced a portal through which users could submit Flash animations and games of their own in 2000. Other game and animation hosting sites, such as Addicting Games , followed soon after, and even older, more niche animation platforms such as stickdeath.com reached wider notoriety. Stick Figure Death Theatre , often abbreviated as SFDT, was founded in 1996 by Matt Calvert, initially as

10283-482: The workplace. Enterprise messaging applications like Slack , TeleMessage , Teamnote and Yammer allow companies to enforce policies on how employees message at work and ensure secure storage of sensitive data. They allow employees to separate work information from their personal emails and texts. Messaging applications may make workplace communication efficient, but they can also have consequences on productivity. A study at Slack showed on average, people spend 10 hours

10396-429: The world today. Tom Fulp began to produce 2D stick figure animations on his Amiga computer for entertainment purposes in the early 1990s. Fulp began to work with Flash , a piece of software used to produce interactive games and animations, soon after its acquisition by Macromedia . In 1995, he created the website Newgrounds , which he used to host games he had created, such as Pico's School (1999). Prompted by

10509-477: Was mIRC . While instant messaging was mainly in use for consumer recreational purposes, in 1998 IBM launched their Lotus Sametime instant messenger software, the first popular example of enterprise-grade instant messaging. In 2000, an open-source application and open standards -based protocol called Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) was launched, initially branded as Jabber . XMPP servers could act as gateways to other IM protocols, reducing

10622-406: Was a condition for the forecoming AOL-Time Warner merger . However in 2004, Microsoft, Yahoo! and AOL agreed to a deal in which Microsoft's enterprise IM server Live Communications Server 2005 would have the possibility to talk to their rival counterparts and vice versa. On October 13, 2005, Microsoft and Yahoo! announced that their IM networks would soon be interoperable, using SIP/SIMPLE. This

10735-488: Was also possible to insert HTML code . The main focus of AIM Pages was the integration of external modules, like those listed above, into the AOL Instant Messenger experience. By late 2007, AIM Pages were discontinued. After AIM Pages shutdown, links to AIM Pages were redirected to AOL Lifestream , AOL's new site aimed at collecting external modules in one place, independent of AIM buddies. AOL Lifestream

10848-471: Was an upgrade to the prior AOL Quick Buddy, which was later available for older systems that cannot handle Express before being discontinued. Express and Quick Buddy were similar to MSN Web Messenger and Yahoo! Web Messenger . This web version evolved into AIM.com's web-based messenger. AIM Pages was a free website released in May 2006 by AOL in replacement of AIMSpace. Anyone who had an AIM user name and

10961-505: Was at least 16 years of age could create their own web page (to display an online, dynamic profile) and share it with buddies from their AIM Buddy list. AIM Pages included links to the email and Instant Message of the owner, along with a section listing the owners "buddies", which included AIM user names . It was possible to create modules in a Module T microformat . Video hosting sites like Netflix and YouTube could be added to ones AIM Page, as well as other sites like Amazon.com . It

11074-485: Was available for Microsoft Windows , Windows Mobile , Classic Mac OS , macOS , Android , iOS , and BlackBerry OS . Around 2011, AIM started to lose popularity rapidly, partly due to the quick rise of Gmail and its built-in real-time Google Chat instant messenger integration in 2011 and because many people migrated to SMS or iMessages text messaging and later, social networking websites and apps for instant messaging, in particular, Facebook Messenger , which

11187-635: Was available for free from the App Store, but the company also provided a paid version, which displayed no advertisements. Both were available from the App Store . The AIM client for iPhone and iPod Touch supported standard AIM accounts, as well as MobileMe accounts. There was also an express version of AIM accessible through the Safari browser on the iPhone and iPod Touch. In 2011, AOL launched an overhaul of their Instant Messaging service. Included in

11300-489: Was commonly found on forum profiles to easily add contacts. AIM had security weaknesses that have enabled exploits to be created that used third-party software to perform malicious acts on users' computers. Although most were relatively harmless, such as being kicked off the AIM service, others performed potentially dangerous actions, such as sending viruses . Some of these exploits relied on social engineering to spread by automatically sending instant messages that contained

11413-400: Was designed by JoRoan Lazaro and was implemented in the first release in 1997. This was a yellow stickman -like figure, often called the "Running Man". The mascot appeared on all AIM logos and most wordmarks, and always appeared at the top of the buddy list . AIM's popularity in the late 1990s and the 2000s led to the “Running Man” becoming a familiar brand on the Internet. After over 14 years,

11526-498: Was driven primarily by individual employees using consumer software at work, rather than by formal mandate or provisioning by corporate information technology departments. Tens of millions of the consumer IM accounts in use are being used for business purposes by employees of companies and other organizations. The adoption of IM across corporate networks outside of the control of IT organizations creates risks and liabilities for companies who do not effectively manage and support IM use. IM

11639-711: Was finally rolled out to Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger users in July 2006. Additionally, in December 2005 by the AOL and Google strategic partnership deal, it was announced that AIM and ICQ users would be able to communicate with Google Talk users. However this feature took until December 2007 to roll out. XMPP provided the best example of open protocol interoperability, having had gateways that connected to Google Talk, Lotus Sametime and others. Later, RCS had been developed by telecommunication companies as an instant messaging protocol to replace SMS , under

11752-493: Was initially shunned by the corporate world partly due to security concerns, but by 2003 many had started embracing these new services. In response to the demand for business-grade IM and the need to ensure security and legal compliance, a new type of instant messaging, called "Enterprise Instant Messaging" ("EIM") was created when Lotus Software launched IBM Lotus Sametime in 1998. Microsoft followed suit shortly thereafter with Microsoft Exchange Instant Messaging, later created

11865-555: Was officially retired. Due to the conservation efforts of Flashpoint Archive, and because of big hosting platforms like Newgrounds and Kongregate developing their own workarounds, the Flash community, and, with it, the stick figure animation subgenre, were preserved from extinction. Creators from that point onward found alternatives for the now defunct software, such as Pivot and Flash's official successor, Adobe Animate . As of Unicode version 13.0, there are five stick figure characters in

11978-506: Was one of the influential pioneers of mobile IM, and led to other companies launching services with proprietary protocols, such as WhatsApp . Mobile instant messaging surpassed SMS in global message volume by 2013. While SMS relied on traditional paid telephone services, IM apps on mobile were available for free or a minor data charge. Older IM services were eventually shut, including AIM and Yahoo! Messenger, and also Windows Live Messenger , which merged into Skype in 2013. In 2014, it

12091-471: Was only free for receiving and AOL charged users $ 14.95 a month for an unlimited calling plan. In order to use AIM Phoneline users had to install the latest free version of AIM Triton software and needed a good set of headphones with a boom microphone. It could take several days after a user signed up before it started working. AIM Call Out is a discontinued Voice over IP PC-PC, PC-Phone and Phone-to-PC service provided by AOL via its AIM application that replaced

12204-575: Was pioneered in the early Internet era; the IRC protocol was the earliest to achieve wide adoption. Later in the 1990s, ICQ was among the first closed and commercialized instant messengers, and several rival services appeared afterwards as it became a popular use of the Internet. Beginning with its first introduction in 2005, BlackBerry Messenger became the first popular example of mobile -based IM, combining features of traditional IM and mobile SMS . Instant messaging remains very popular today; IM apps are

12317-607: Was released as a standalone application the same year. AOL made a partnership to integrate AIM messaging in Google Talk, and had a feature for AIM users to send SMS messages directly from AIM to any number, as well as for SMS users to send an IM to any AIM user. As of June 2011, one source reported AOL Instant Messenger market share had collapsed to 0.73%. However, this number only reflected installed IM applications, and not active users. The engineers responsible for AIM claimed that they were unable to convince AOL management that free

12430-746: Was released unceremoniously as a stand-alone download for Microsoft Windows . AIM was an outgrowth of "online messages" in the original platform written in PL/1 on a Stratus computer by Dave Brown. At one time, the software had the largest share of the instant messaging market in North America, especially in the United States (with 52% of the total reported as of 2006). This does not include other instant messaging software related to or developed by AOL, such as ICQ and iChat . During its heyday, its main competitors were ICQ (which AOL acquired in 1998), Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger . AOL particularly had

12543-466: Was reported that instant messaging had more users than social networks. Concurrently, rising use of instant messaging at workplaces led to the creation of new services ( enterprise application integration (EAI)) often integrated with other enterprise applications such as workflow systems, for example in Skype for Business , Slack and Microsoft Teams . Meanwhile, the launch of Discord in 2015 has marked

12656-480: Was shut down February 24, 2017. AOL released an all-new AIM for the Mac on September 29, 2008, and the final build on December 15, 2008. The redesigned AIM for Mac is a full universal binary Cocoa API application that supports both Tiger and Leopard — Mac OS X 10.4.8 (and above) or Mac OS X 10.5.3 (and above). On October 1, 2009, AOL released AIM 2.0 for Mac. This feature was available for AIM 7 and allowed for

12769-413: Was the future. On March 3, 2012, AOL ended employment of AIM's development staff while leaving it active and with help support still provided. On October 6, 2017, it was announced that the AIM service would be discontinued on December 15; however, a non-profit development team known as Wildman Productions started up a server for older versions of AOL Instant Messenger, known as AIM Phoenix. The AIM mascot

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