Instant Messaging Apps – History, Facts and Popular Apps

Be it for fun purposes or team collaborations, more and more people are hopping on instant messaging apps. And that’s bringing a revolutionary change in the world of technology.

Before surfing through the line of popular instant messaging apps, let’s put some light over its evolution.

History of instant messaging apps –

The notion of instant messaging apps started in the late 1960s. Later, in 1961, the Computer Center at the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) developed a multi-user operating system named CTSS. This incredible program allowed the admin to send instant messages to up to 30 users at one time.

Further, in the 1970s, the programmers started working on protocols, allowing labs and educational institutes to establish an effective mode of communication among the users of the similar computer system. To add more to its efficiency, in 1980, a project Athena was started where MIT programmers developed and introduced the Zephyr Notification Service. This service helped to locate and send instant messages to users sitting at different locations. There are some educational institutions like Carnegie Mellon University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which still uses these services to convey instant messages.

In 1982, the Commodore 64 infused an internet connection service named ‘Q-Link’ (Quantum Link) to fasten the instant messaging service while incorporating more features to it. Later, this was named as AOL (America Online) in the 90s. At those times, Q-Link users used to pay a monthly subscription fee to avail the service. The service packages were based on the parameters like – usage amount, number of text-based messages to be sent, and much more. To this, the receiver had the option either to accept or reject the message request.

With time, other institutes and programmers came up with improvisations to the instant messaging concept. And this resulted in Mirabills introducing ICQ in 1996. This was a text-based instant messaging app which soon became popular among people. The increasing demand for instant messaging apps in the market made AOL come up with AIL, which attracted the younger generation the most.

By the end of 2005, AIM became the top-notch player in instant messaging apps with more than 53 million users. Further, Yahoo launched a Yahoo Messenger platform in 1998. This influenced Microsoft to develop and launch MSN Messenger in the market in the very next year, 1999. To this, people responded very well, and in no time, MSN Messenger had more than 40 million users in its kitty.

While adding more features and a better interface, Brosix entered the instant messaging app market in 2006. Brosix was a safe communication platform permitting personal as well as enterprise-level communications.

And finally, then the world had the ruler of all, social media and messaging app named Facebook Chat in 2008. Since then, a lot of other instant messaging apps have been introduced in the market named – Snapchat, WhatsApp, WeChat, and much more.

Instant messaging apps – Quick facts

1. In mid-February 2020, WhatsApp disclosed to have more than 2 billion users throughout the globe.
2. High on-demand apps like – Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger comes under the ‘Facebook’s Family of Apps’ tag.
3. Facebook’s family of apps has more than 6.8 billion active users per month over the globe.
4. When it comes to the number of active users, Facebook is leading the league.
5. After the age group of 25 to 34 years old, the age group of 55+ is witnessed highly active on instant messaging apps.

Popular instant messaging apps available for the present-time generation –

• Facebook Messenger – At present, Facebook has more than 1.3 billion active users per month which makes it arguably one of the highly popular instant messaging and social media apps. The marketing researchers confirm that the total number of active users will almost double by the end of 2021. Facebook has responsive design quality. It comes in mobile and desktop web app forms suiting your convenience.
• Snapchat – Till the third quarter of 2020, Snapchat confirms to have more than 249 million active users worldwide. This American multimedia instant messaging app is developed by Snap Inc. The app is infused with interesting features like sending instant pictures, quick videos, selfies with countless filters. Call it for the sake of a wider angle or convenience, but a high majority of people use Snapchat on Mac loaded with numerous additional features. Users can download and install Snapchat on Mac or laptops to enjoy chatting and clicking pictures without worrying about the right angle.
• Instagram – This giant social media and instant messaging app is recognized as the best and closest alternative to Snapchat. With more than 1 billion active users, Instagram is the first social media platform preferences of most of the celebrities throughout the globe. From interesting filters to the latest ‘Reel’ option, Instagram tops the social media world to a considerable extent.
• Discord – Discord is a communication app for gamers that lets you easily voice chat, share photos, and videos, and join channels with your friends. It’s free and secure, making it the perfect platform for gaming communities of all sizes, and with discord bots, you can really make your community server stand out.
• TikTok – People love watching and creating quick half-minute videos which have uplifted the popularity graph of a Chinese app like TikTok. Statista says TikTok is being used in more than 150 countries and has more than 1 billion users in the world. To be precise, the app has been downloaded around 175 million times in the United States only.
• Bigo Live – This app seems to be the next big thing stealing everyone’s attention already. Having more than 200 million downloads, Bigo Live is one of the most streaming and loved platforms in the world. Here, users can go live, get likes and have fans in their kitty to make handsome money.

The last line –

Instant messaging apps have become the all be and end-all of this generation. Be it sending invites to commencing a con-call; people look towards instant messaging apps the most. Studies say a smartphone or device user spends at least 3 hours a day on these apps and social media, collectively. This illustrates the amount of mania and the influence of instant messaging apps in the current generation. To this, researchers predict that these already whopping numbers of users will increase in the forthcoming years.