AOL or AIM instant messaging was once one of the most popular tools in the instant messaging market in North America. It was discontinued on December 15, 2017. Viruses, worms, and Trojans are usually spread by quickly sending themselves to the infected user`s contact list. An effective attack with a poisoned URL can reach tens of thousands of users in a short period of time if each user`s contact list receives messages that appear to come from a trusted friend. Recipients click on the web address and the whole cycle begins again. Infections can range from annoying to criminal and become more sophisticated every year. In addition to the threat of malicious code, the use of instant messaging in the workplace also carries a risk of non-compliance with the laws and regulations that govern the use of electronic communications in companies. For instant messaging to work as expected, users must be online at the same time, although almost all instant messaging platforms allow asynchronous interactions between users online and offline. If offline messaging is not supported, any attempt to send an instant message to an unavailable user will result in a notification that the transfer cannot be completed. In addition, the intended recipient must be willing to accept instant messages. Most IM clients can be configured to reject specific users.

While negotiations stalled at the IETF, Reuters signed the first agreement on connectivity between service providers in September 2003. The agreement allowed AIM, ICQ and MSN Messenger users to speak with Reuters messaging colleagues and vice versa. Following this, Microsoft, Yahoo!, and AOL agreed to an agreement that would also allow Microsoft Live Communications Server 2005 users to talk to public IM users. This agreement established SIP/SIMPLE as the standard for protocol interoperability and established connectivity charges for accessing public IM groups or services. Separately, Microsoft and Yahoo! announced on October 13, 2005 that they would work together via SIP/SIMPLE until Q3 2006, followed by AOL`s strategic partnership with Google in December 2005, allowing Google Talk users to communicate with AIM and ICQ users as long as they have an AIM account. Early instant messaging programs were mostly real-time text, where characters were displayed as they typed. These include the Unix command-line utility, which was popular in the 1980s and early 1990s. Some BBS chat programs (such as Celerity BBS) also used a similar interface. Modern real-time text implementations also exist in instant messaging, such as AOL`s optional real-time instant messaging[17]. [18] The use of proprietary protocols has resulted in many IM networks being incompatible and users cannot reach users on other networks. [26] This may have allowed social networks with instant messaging and text messaging capabilities to gain market share at the expense of IB.

[27] Private chat allows private conversations with another person or group. The privacy aspect can also be improved in various ways, such as end-to-end encryption such as Signal. Or some apps have a timer feature like Snapchat where messages, conversations, or files like photos are automatically deleted from the user`s phone once the time limit is reached. The public chat and group features allow users to communicate with multiple people at the same time. In response to the demand for enterprise instant messaging and the need for security and regulatory compliance, a new type of instant messaging called enterprise instant messaging (“EIM”) was developed when Lotus Software launched IBM Lotus Sametime in 1998. Microsoft followed soon after with Microsoft Exchange instant messaging, then created a new platform called Microsoft Office Live Communications Server, and released Office Communications Server 2007 in October 2007. Oracle Corporation also entered the market with its Oracle Beehive unified collaboration software. [33] Both IBM Lotus and Microsoft have introduced federation between their EIM systems and some public IM networks, allowing employees to interact with both their internal EIM system and contacts from AOL, MSN and Yahoo. Since 2010, major EIM platforms include IBM Lotus Sametime, Microsoft Office Communications Server, Jabber XCP and Cisco Unified Presence.

[Third Party Source Required] Industry-focused EIM platforms, such as Reuters Messaging and Bloomberg Messaging, also offer instant messaging capabilities to financial services companies. [Third Party Source Required] Instant messaging programs may differ depending on the platform in which they are integrated.