Have you ever wondered how an instant messaging app came to life? Who created them and why? Would you like to learn about the popular and free instant messaging apps that you can download for your smartphone?
History of Instant Messaging Apps
Once upon a time, there used to be only one genre of communication apps – the SMS texting applications. Then it became popular to send pictures, texts and more to your friends at no cost through some new fancy Instant Messaging Apps . It was even better when they started including emojis! Just imagine sending an actual picture of a happy face or a laughing voice bubble to your friends instead of just texting either of them!
This is exactly what IM Apps are made for – real-time communication with your buddies, not only online but also through text.
Instant messaging is a method of communication that allows the user to exchange messages with one or more other users in real-time (that is, while both users are online).
In instant messaging, users can display messages in one or more windows, and users can send and receive messages using one or more tools.
Messages can be displayed as text, as a voice waveform, or both, along with audio, video, images, and other media. Instant messaging applications typically provide some form of user authentication (to prevent users from communicating with other users without authorization), and may include security features such as encryption, message expiration, and message blocking. Instant messaging apps are available in a variety of device form factors and operating systems, including mobile, tablet, desktop, and embedded clients.
The first instant messaging client available on a commercial operating system was Apple’s iChat for Windows, released on August 8, 1999.
The first instant messaging client released on the World Wide Web was Yahoo! Messenger on October 30, 1996. The first instant messaging client to be widely used was the proprietary IRC-based software Trillian.
In 1999, instant messaging became the most used method of communication on the Internet, with an estimated 103 billion messages exchanged.
Communications technologies have a way of changing faster than we expect. When the first broadband ISP (Internet Service Provider) became widely available in the US, it radically changed how we communicate. Before cable, most people had dialup accounts, which limited your connection to a 56K modem.
With broadband, you could suddenly communicate in real time.
But it didn’t take long for communication techniques to change. People quickly realized that they could use text chat, rather than voice chat, to speed things up. Text chat was faster, and since it didn’t require audio equipment, people used it. Before long, text chat was faster than voice chat.
Now, communication is still faster. Instant messaging allows two people to communicate in real time. But that’s only part of the story. The other half are apps.
Mind Blowing Facts of IM
Since the very beginnings of Internet communication, people have tried to send messages to one another without being interrupted or noticing their messages.
The first attempt, called “Instant Messaging” or IM for short, dates back to 1985. It was called Arpanet chat, and was created by the American government. ARPANET stands for Advanced Research Projects Agency Network. It was a network of computers built by the government for the military.
CHAT was the first network protocol to support real-time message delivery. The protocol was based on a protocol for file transfer called UUCP (Unix to Unix Copy). UUCP allowed files to be transferred from one computer to another.
Instant messaging apps have gained popularity with the increase in use of smartphones. The use of these apps has surpassed the use of SMS (Short Message Service).
Instant messaging apps have taken the texting experience to a whole new level. The instant messaging apps allow texting and chatting in video and audio format as well.
These apps have made things easier and fun.
Texting has definitely changed a lot over the years. There are different versions of texting apps available on the market.
Instant messaging or IM apps come in many different forms.
Types of IM
One recent version, called ‘GroupMe’, allows multiple users to chat with each other simultaneously. This app facilitates group chats and video chats. These apps allow users to send text, images, audio, and video messages.
These apps have changed the way texts are exchanged in our daily lives.
WhatsApp Messenger is an instant messaging app that is very popular amongst people around the globe. This chat app allows free text messaging and voice calling.
Facebook Messenger, another popular IM app, allows users to send text, photos, audio and video messages to their contacts.
Snapchat, a popular app among young people, allows users to send photos and short videos to each other.
This chat app also allows users to add various filters to their photos to make their photos fun and creative. This chat app also allows sending text messages and photos via Wi-Fi.
Skype is another popular messaging app that lets people communicate with one another through voice and video calls.
Viber, another popular chat app, allows users to make free voice calls and send text messages to their friends.
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