AIM is unofficially dead. What do you use?
#1
Posted 13 March 2012 - 07:02 PM
It looks like AIM is unofficially dead. It probably has been for a long time, but this is sort of the nail in the coffin. I doubt they are going to pull the plug on the actual network for a long while, but it has been getting rather sluggish and disconnects often (for a chat network). So this brings me to my main point for this topic.
I've been a long time user of AIM (the protocol anyway... the official client is terrible). I don't have very many people I talk to on there, but I still found it convenient for talking to people outside of IRC. Ignoring IRC, what communication network do you use for communicating with other people? Yahoo? Google Talk? Skype? Other?
I'm honestly curious because I'm considering getting into another network due to how unreliable AIM is becoming and this has made it somewhat clear that they have no plans of fixing it.
#2
Posted 13 March 2012 - 07:05 PM
Plus, MSN seems way too easy to get hacked; I've had at least three different friends get their MSN hacked before.
#3
Posted 13 March 2012 - 07:21 PM
I still use AIM the most out of any IM client, actually, so this news kind of sucks. Barring AIM, though, I mostly use Skype for all of my IMing purposes. It's kind of buggy (especially group chats--messages often randomly get marked as unread, and Skype likes to scroll to whatever the earliest unread message is, so it'll randomly scroll up even as new IMs are received ), but it works well enough, and most of the people I know that aren't on AIM use it, anyway.
Other than that, I keep MSN and Google Talk around, but I rarely get IMs on either. The latter is probably because most of the people I have added on GTalk are people that I talk to elsewhere already, but the number of people on my MSN list has dwindled further and further as time has gone on. I suspect the hacking problems TS mentioned might have something to do with it, not to mention that the protocol is generally riddled with spam...
Twitter's kind of neat as a way to keep up with what people are up to, but it's nowhere near a replacement for a good IM protocol. It just doesn't feel as live, so it's not nearly as convenient if you want to hold an extended conversation.
#4
Posted 13 March 2012 - 07:38 PM
And IRC of course.
#5
Posted 13 March 2012 - 07:44 PM
#6
Posted 13 March 2012 - 07:51 PM
#7
Posted 13 March 2012 - 10:22 PM
#8
Posted 13 March 2012 - 10:52 PM
#9
Posted 14 March 2012 - 12:44 AM
#10
Posted 14 March 2012 - 04:42 AM
As for me -- when I have a working and functional computer -- I use Trillian, which is capable of logging on to a number of different IM services. But that's just semantics: it is still divided into logins for different accounts, including one for AIM. Actually, AIM is the service I have used most often. In contrast: ICQ is dead, Yahoo IM sucks, MSN apparently does its best to block out Trillian... and although Trillian can connect to Facebook chat, it isn't really any better than FB's in-browser IM client, so I don't use that feature very much.
That said, I've been using FB the most often out of all the services currently available. In my browser, specifically. It's surprising, but their in-browser IM client is actually pretty good. (What's also surprising is that FB has an excellent file transfer PM system, but that's a different subject.)
The main downside, if this even IS one, is that I can only chat with people I have on Facebook...and I only choose to add people on Facebook if I know them particularly well. I tend to be lenient with anyone from PureZC, but I end up having to learn all their real names if I have any hope of communicating with them (without confusing myself).
I'm willing to bet AIM will be absorbed into another IM network, but I wonder what the state of IMs is today. One major downside of IM programs -- for the parent companies, anyway -- is that they don't have many opportunities to make them money (in fact, I have no idea how AOL ever made a dime from AIM... Were there ads? I forget).
But yeah, if you ever want to talk to me in real time, ask me for my Facebook profile. Once I get my own computer again, I'll probably be back on IRC as well, but it's pretty remarkable that IRC still remains useful. It's just the most straightforward way to chat with groups of people via text.
#11
Posted 14 March 2012 - 05:23 AM
If I absolutely must, though, I'll sign on to MSN/Windows Live/Hotmail/whatever it's called nowadays via Pidgin. But that's every once in a blue moon; for now, I stick mainly with Skype, Steam, and Facebook.
#12
Posted 14 March 2012 - 12:09 PM
I would not mind texting someone from here but I am not a gamer so I don't really have much in common with anyone.
#13
Posted 14 March 2012 - 05:28 PM
#14
Posted 15 March 2012 - 03:05 AM
#15
Posted 20 March 2012 - 08:12 AM
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