It was the late 90s, social media platforms like Facebook didn't yet exist, texting was in its infancy, email was very popular, instant messaging was up for...

The bottom of the article links to the history (individual features) of other IM programs from that era as well like ICQ and Yahoo Messenger.

  • ShunkW@lemmy.worldEnglish
    16·
    2 months ago

    I used that until they pay walled it. Then I found Pidgen I believe it was called. It was open source and could connect to pretty much every messenger and IRC and stuff. Then my friend just switched to texting lol

    • JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      13·
      2 months ago

      Pidgin. Before that it was called Gaim.
      It still works, as there are plugins to integrate it with almost everything.

      • ShunkW@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        I knew it wasn’t spelled exactly like the bird lol. But yeah I used that shit for years. I don’t really have a use for it anymore or I’d probably still be using it

        • toynbee@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          I used it all the way up until Google broke compatibility with it, then continued using it with a third party plug-in until that stopped being maintained.

          Now I prefer Signal over Chat.

        • WildPalmTree@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          “A pidgin /ˈpɪdʒɪn/, or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified means of communication that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn from several languages.”