this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2024
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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.

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[–] tehn00bi@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago

That’s ok, we have teams now

[–] moonbunny@lemmy.world 13 points 9 hours ago

Microsoft Teams is sorta like the all grown up version of MSN, with the colour drained from it and “fun” features out of the box feeling dead on the inside

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 30 points 22 hours ago (3 children)

I might have been 10 minutes too young for ICQ. I think that's what the college kids were playing with when I was in high school. For my cohort it was the big three: MSN, Yahoo! and AIM. You probably had all three installed on your computer and probably all running at once. They're probably why my entire generation can touch type. Vital tool for teenage social life at the turn of the century.

This was Microsoft's era, too. The main reason Apple survived the 90's was because Microsoft invested in them to counter anti-trust allegations. They paid Apple to keep existing so they couldn't be called a monopoly. Internet Explorer was the web browser, any others in use were a rounding error. No one had a Mac, a few people were still clinging to their Amigas. THE platform for personal/home computing and internet access was a Pentium PC with Windows ME or XP, which came with MSN Messenger out of the box.

Two things happened nearly simultaneously: Facebook Messenger and the iPhone. Graduating high school in 2005, your freshman year of college you probably started hearing about the cool new site that's kinda like MySpace except it's only for college kids. By your junior year all your new college friends were on Facebook and all your old high school friends that never logged on let alone talk to you were on MSN. And if you graduated in 2005, your junior year was in 2007, the year the iPhone was launched. MSN Messenger had been present as baked in "functions" of certain media phones at the time, but I don't think they ever made it to the App Store or even the Play Store on Android. Facebook was fast to adopt mobile apps, and for awhile there it was the one messenger service that interoperated between desktop on a web browser and smart phones across platforms. SMS didn't run on the desktop, iMessage is Apple-only, AIM, MSN and Yahoo were nowhere to be found and Telegram, Signal, Discord etc. weren't around yet. So everyone standardized on Facebook Messenger.

Meanwhile, Microsoft bought and ruined Skype.

[–] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 4 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

As a diehard Netscape Navigator user, I scoff at your browser choice.

The running joke in my day was everyone used Internet Explorer... to download Netscape.

In 2003, Internet Explorer had a 95% market share. Your running joke was demonstrably untrue.

[–] Soapbox1858@lemm.ee 3 points 14 hours ago

You nailed my experience. Though AIM was preferred. I begrudgingly used MSN too for a couple people who weren't allowed to install AIM.

[–] radicalautonomy@lemmy.world 18 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

I think that’s what the college kids were playing with when I was in high school.

Started college in 1995, and I indeed did have ICQ before too long. Still remember my number (6725571).

You probably had all three installed on your computer and probably all running at once.

I remember using a program called Trillian (which is still around!) in the late 90s/early 00s. It allowed you to connect multiple IM accounts in one app. It was sorta finicky, but it got the job done.

[–] XaiwahBlue@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 21 hours ago (4 children)

I haven't thought of those apps for years, I used Pidgin! I had to look up the program name.

[–] P1nkman@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago

Blast from the freaking past! Wow, you just unlocked some memories for me.

[–] Tin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

I still use Pidgin, because I still have some old work related contacts who use Skype, and I'd much rather use Pidgin than keep Skype around. It will do discord too but it's a bit kludgey.

[–] XaiwahBlue@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

It will do discord? That's amazing, I will have to look back into it. Discord has been awful for a while, but getting people to switch is impossible. 😩

[–] omarfw@lemmy.world 4 points 19 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee 1 points 14 hours ago

Pidgin is still around too afaik.

[–] GoOnASteamTrain@lemmy.ml 1 points 17 hours ago

Emesene and pidgin were great! :)

[–] korthrun@lemmy.sdf.org 226 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Microsoft pivoted to Skype. Saved you a click and reading about 1000 words.

[–] orclev@lemmy.world 43 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Which Microsoft then shit all over (to be fair, Skype started that process even before MS bought them) and eventually renamed it to Microsoft Teams.

[–] Scrollone@feddit.it 2 points 8 hours ago

I'm so old that I used Skype when it had a red logo.

[–] yamanii@lemmy.world 1 points 13 hours ago

Skype was never meant to replace MSN, even back then everyone complained about it and we talked on teamspeak while playing games.

[–] Fredselfish@lemmy.world 7 points 22 hours ago

I have use teams at work and I hate it.

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 35 points 1 day ago (5 children)

And for a while, there was also Skype for Business (formerly Lync (formerly Communicator)).

[–] BeardedGingerWonder@feddit.uk 1 points 6 hours ago

If I remember correctly the Skype for business still identified as communicator on the about page.

[–] P1nkman@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago

The process was skype.exe, so Lync was Skype with a skin.

[–] Yingwu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 14 hours ago

For a while? Our business used it until ... this year. It's finally EOL this year.

[–] orclev@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Yeah that was part of the brand reshuffling they did to obfuscate things. Lync was their shitty chat app they tried to convince businesses to use that everyone hated. They bought Skype, renamed it to Microsoft Teams, renamed Lync to Skype for Business, and killed MSN Messenger. When people still didn't want to use ~~Lync~~Skype for Business, then they killed that as well, and now it's just MS Teams.

[–] caoimhinr@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Fun fact any developer working with the api can tell you, there is a clear distinction between de voip bit and the meeting/chat bit. They haven't bothered rewriting or integrating it in any way so the Skype for business backend is still very much alive.

[–] greybeard@lemmy.one 17 points 1 day ago

Another fun fact: On the backend, Teams uses SharePoint to store files, and Exchange to store message. The whole M365 stack is a house of cards built on ancient tech. It's a wonder it works at all.

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[–] auzy@lemmy.world 22 points 1 day ago

Yep. I hate clickbait. You're a legend

[–] uninvitedguest@lemmy.ca 46 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I'm surprised no one mentioned Facebook.

I recall using MSN as far as in to 2009, but the friends I was connected with migrated to Facebook when their chat feature rolled out.

[–] Skullgrid@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago

I recall using MSN as far as in to 2009, but the friends I was connected with migrated to Facebook when their chat feature rolled out.

another reason to hate facebook

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[–] ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world 45 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Anyone remember the short-lived Great War of the Messenger Apps? For a few months back around... '98? '99? MSN tried really hard to shoehorn its way into working with AIM. About every day there would be an update from MSM Messenger to allow it to work with AIM. Then AOL would fuck with their own protocol to ice out MSN users again.

I think these shenanigans also impacted the Trillium Messenger app too, which up until then had been flying under the radar of messenger interoperability.

I might be getting some of these details wrong.

[–] Saik0Shinigami@lemmy.saik0.com 6 points 22 hours ago

Trillium

Trillian, not trillium. And they're actually still around.

[–] tias@discuss.tchncs.de 33 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (6 children)

And then Jabber came to fix it by introducing an open protocol, and Google started supporting it, and all was well. But when everybody was using Google Chat they severed the Jabber compatibility, locking everyone in to their platform. Now we're back wading around in enshittified shit and Jabber is dead.

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[–] ShunkW@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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.xyz 12 points 1 day ago (3 children)

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

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[–] CaptainBasculin@lemmy.ml 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It was very popular within my friends up until the skype merger. At that point they went "i aint usin skype lmao"

[–] Jackthelad@lemmy.world 27 points 1 day ago (4 children)
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