INSTANT MESSAGING

A bit of IM

Instant messaging had and continues to have a huge impact on society and the workplace environment.

IM technology started in the 1970s implemented on the PLATO system, followed by the "talk" system implemented on UNIX/Linux in the 1980s and 1990s. Until the appearance of the first completely independent messaging system ICQ, which could only be used over the ICQ network. From then on, different variations with independent protocols started to emerge. This led to the creation of applications such as Pidgin or Trillian that supported several protocols at the same time.

Some of today's IM applications support different features:

- Private and group messaging.

- Call or video-call option.

- Implementation in games and entertainment.

- Peer-to-peer payments.

This technology had a huge impact especially in the workplace, allowing companies to use different instant messaging applications and modify them for their own ease of use such as online meetings, payments, enforcing company policies, security for sensitive data and more.

Some of these applications are Slack, Teamnote, Yammer and Telemessage.

A noteworthy aspect of IM is the generation of slang language that appeared in human-to-human communication, abbreviations in expressions such as LOL (Laugh Out Loud), BRB (Be Right Back) and TTYL (Talk To You Later).

The comparison we could make to IM would be with SMS (Short Message Service). A technology in which it was a leader in the 2000s, allowing people to send messages without an internet connection. It became so popular that it is still a default application on smartphones today. However, when instant messaging apps appeared in 2013, IM became the leader to this day.

It should also be said that IM is generally used more on smartphones because of its popularity, as almost everyone nowadays has one.

Finally, we could end up with new IM implementations such as Dust, an IM solution built on the blockchain because of the problem of big companies regulating and removing privacy from today's IM applications.

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