Most Popular Instant Messengers 1995 - 2025
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Remember the iconic sounds of AIM, the blinking flower of ICQ, or meticulously crafting your MSN Messenger away message? 💬 Join us on a trip down memory lane as we explore the fascinating history of instant messengers! From the pioneering days of simple text chat to the feature-packed super-apps like WhatsApp, WeChat, and Telegram that connect billions today, we'll uncover the rise (and sometimes fall) of the platforms that revolutionized how we communicate. What was your first IM? Let us know in the comments!
In this data visualization video I look at the most popular instant messaging apps based on monthly active users. It includes the first graphical instant messaging app, PowWow. It was far ahead of its time but did not gain much traction.
I know there are many more apps but their numbers were either missing, completely off or not high enough to include in the list. Here are the ones I included:
1995
PowWow
First Graphical Standalone IM Client
First with VoIP, whiteboard, text-to-speech, surf together, audio player
1996
ICQ
First widely adopted IM client
1997
AIM
Initially integrated into AOL Desktop
1998
Yahoo! Messenger
1999
QQ
Popular in China
1999
MSN Messenger
AKA Windows Live Messenger
2000
Battle.net
Provided instant messaging for gamers
2003
Skype
Focused on video-chat
2005
Google Talk
2005
Blackberry Messenger
2009
WhatsApp
Developed by former Yahoo employees
2009
Kik Messenger
Reached 40% of US teens by 2016
2010
Viber
2011
WeChat
2011
iMessage
2011
SnapChat
2012
LINE
2012
Hike Messenger
2013
Telegram
2013
Facebook Messenger
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