Instant messaging

[2][3][4] Instant messaging was pioneered in the early Internet era; the IRC protocol was the earliest to achieve wide adoption.

[11] 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 the central server).

[12] 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.

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.

[28] Modern, Internet-wide, GUI-based messaging clients as they are known today, began to take off in the mid-1990s with PowWow, ICQ, and AOL Instant Messenger (AIM).

[2] 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.

[37] 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.

[22][38] While SMS relied on traditional paid telephone services, IM apps on mobile were available for free or a minor data charge.

[45] As of 2024, fragmentation of IM services means that a typical user is likely to have to use more networks than ever, including the need to download the apps and signing up, to stay in touch with all their contacts.

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 the reasons it's taking its time.

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.

[55] XMPP provided the best example of open protocol interoperability, having had gateways that connected to Google Talk, Lotus Sametime and others.

Usually, a dedicated corporate IM server has several advantages, such as pre-populated contact lists, integrated authentication, and better security and privacy.

Users sometimes make use of internet slang or text speak to abbreviate common words or expressions to quicken conversations or reduce keystrokes.

Emotions are often expressed in shorthand, such as the abbreviation LOL, BRB and TTYL; respectively laugh(ing) out loud, be right back, and talk to you later.

Also there are certain standards that are being introduced into mainstream conversations including, '#' indicates 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.

[citation needed] 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 was driven primarily by individual employees using consumer software at work, rather than by formal mandate or provisioning by corporate information technology departments.

[citation needed] IM was initially shunned by the corporate world partly due to security concerns, but by 2003 many had started embracing these new services.

As of 2010, leading EIM platforms include IBM Lotus Sametime, Microsoft Office Communications Server, Jabber XCP and Cisco Unified Presence.

Also, IM client software often requires the user to expose open UDP ports to the world, raising the threat posed by potential security vulnerabilities.

[72][73] In 2023, cybersecurity researchers discovered that numerous malicious "mods" exist of the Telegram instant messenger, which is freely available for download from Google Play.

IM networks may store messages with either local-based device storage (e.g. WhatsApp, Viber, Line, WeChat, Signal etc.

[78] In January 2014, Matthew Campbell and Michael Hurley filed a class-action lawsuit against Facebook for breaching the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.

[79] They alleged that the information in their supposedly private messages was being read and used to generate profit, specifically "for purposes including but not limited to data mining and user profiling".

Creating a specific account for each user allows the organization to identify, track and record all use of their messenger system on their servers.

[83] In addition to the malicious code threat, using instant messaging at work creates a risk of non-compliance with laws and regulations governing electronic communications in businesses.

[86] Changes to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, effective December 1, 2006, created a new category for electronic records which may be requested during discovery in legal proceedings.

The most common regulations related to IM at work involve producing archived business communications to satisfy government or judicial requests under law.

[87] There are 25 countries in the world where WhatsApp messenger is not the market leader in IM, such as the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Philippines, and China.