AOL Instant Messenger—AIM—basically ran the show in the early 2000s. Launched in 1997, it was the go-to way to chat online before smartphones and social media took over. Everyone had a screen name, a buddy list, and an away message that doubled as your personal billboard. Version 2.0 dropped in ‘98 with file transfers, and by version 5.0 in 2001, AIM had full-blown chat themes, plugins, and direct messaging that felt next level for its time. If you were online in the early days, AIM was more than an app—it was a lifestyle. It finally shut down in 2017, but let’s be honest, the golden era was already long gone by then.