Instant Messaging Is Dead – Or Is It?

The instant messaging I’m referring to is the traditional old-school way, that being you download a proprietary client, sign up for a free account and then run the client, add buddies/contacts as need be, etc. Such examples are AIM, Yahoo! IM and Windows Live Messenger.

The main reason why people aren’t too fond of IM’ing anymore is mainly because less people are using it. The days of having long "buddy" lists are long gone on a single proprietary IM service. And sure, when you use a multi-protocol messenger, you’ll get those long lists back, but then you have to deal with random service disconnects (Windows Live and Yahoo are infamous for that on third party clients), wonky client issues, etc. It’s simply not worth the hassle most of the time.

Enter Facebook

I know there are several of you out there that can’t stand Facebook, but there is one very good thing about it: Nearly everybody has an account. It is the #1 social network on the internet, and as luck would have it, it has an instant messaging service built right in.

What this means is that you can centralize your IM experience to Facebook. This is very good because all you need to do is configure a single IM service. Even better is the fact you have two distinctly different ways to go about it, and can be logged in several times at once from computer to computer.

Method 1: The Facebook site itself

Simple enough, just login to the site and enable chat. When a new IM comes in you’ll hear a sound. The Facebook site also allows pop-out browser windows for easier chat management.

Method 2: Using an IM client

ICQ, AIM, Trillian, Digsby and a few other clients can connect to Facebook IM easily. When you do you’ll be prompted by Facebook to authorize the application for a "persistent connection", allowing you to stay connected to Facebook IM without having to re-login to the site every hour or so.

This is what it looks like when you configure Facebook instant messaging in AIM 7:

You get a new category called "Facebook Friends". For whoever is online, just double click and chat. When people IM you through Facebook, it acts just like it would any other IM.

It should also be noted that for AIM it’s easy to sign out of Facebook chat:

The reason this is important is because you can still get Facebook updates without being in chat using the Lifestream function. More on that in a moment.

The best part about the client is that once configured, you don’t have to login to the facebook.com web site if you don’t want to. On several of the IM clients listed above, things like status updates from your Facebook friends are listed in a separate column on a tab. With AIM and ICQ in particular, this is shown on the "Lifestream" tab (seen above). It will even show reply threads and allow you to join in on conversations easily all from within the client.

In other words, you can use Facebook without dealing with the annoying facebook.com interface – a big plus.

My personal experience using Facebook IM in a client has been a good one thus far. And to be perfectly honest I get more actual chatting on Facebook than I have with any other IM service in several years.

I should also note that the Facebook IM service is actually pretty darned reliable, surprisingly. Can’t say the same for the actual facebook.com web site itself, but the IM service they have is stable.

Is instant messaging dead?

As far as the AIM/ICQ/Yahoo/WLive way of doing it is concerned, yes, so you can say the "traditional" method of instant messaging is dead as a doorknob. I remember years ago on my AIM account alone when I had quite the buddy list. Now it’s just 4 people. I removed all those who were on my AIM buddy list that abandoned the service years ago.

Is Facebook saving instant messaging from going completely obsolete?

Possibly. I won’t give a definitive yes or no because who knows what will happen with Facebook in the future. But for now it’s top dog in social interactivity.

I don’t know about you, but I haven’t heard any news of traditional IM use growing by leaps and bounds. If anything it’s stagnating at best.

Facebook on the other hand continues to grow. And even if it peaks (if it hasn’t already), I consider it the best way to IM these days.

What do you think? Is traditional IM dead? Is Facebook saving it?

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Aaron Fournier
Traditional IM with AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, and Windows Live will probably never be as popular as it once was because more people are text messaging instead. Facebook IM will probably help save instant messaging to a certain degree because so many people use Facebook.
David M
Wow…instant messaging. I haven’t done that since I had an AOL account back in the 90′s. I had about 50 people on my Buddy List. We had some great times sending messages back and forth while in various chat rooms. There is nothing like that now. I miss the sense of community in a way.
AOL got really tight with their rules in the chat rooms. Eventually you could no longer “scroll”, post a URL or even make up words or symbols that represent a swear word. There were lurkers in the chatrooms who would look for rule violations and report you. I eventually got enough strikes against me that AOL canceled my membership. AOL held a kangaroo court on a conference call with about 4 people with thick Indian accents. I pleaded my case but lost anyway. I never went back to AOL.
Being kicked off AOL was a good thing because it encouraged me to venture to other places on the internet…even as primitive as the internet was back in the nineties.
Brian
Still use Skype’s, but only until we get video up and running with my wife’s family in Malaysia.
http://www.osxdaily.com William Pearson
I still use IM all the time, it’s still the fastest way to collaborate and share things with someone online in real time.
Force
I’ve used a multi-protocol of some shape or form for years. I’d have to say, 4 years ago is about when traditional IM chat started being overtaken by social networks.
Today, most of the online chats I have either happen in an IRC chatroom or through the facebook protocol (I currently use the digsby chat client, which has supported facebook chat for a while now). There are still a few folks I chat regularly using the traditional chat protocols (AIM, Y!, MSN), but the list has certainly gotten quite short.
Jase
MSN/Win Live (whatever you wanna call it) I use daily for work purposes (remote desktop stuff mostly)
and to chat to a few friends occssionally.
as for Yahoo – I haven’t touched that for about a decade, since the earliest version that supported webcams (v6.0?)
AOL/AIM – err pass…. I set up an account for AIM but I never used it.
ICQ – I havent touched it since mid 2003 – only really used it to send free SMS messages while the main GSM based telco here actually supported it., i got peed off that spambots/botnets kept trying to add me as well, and also the fact that my ISP doesn’t support the protocol it runs on anymore put the final nail in its coffin!
IRC – I still use it occasionally, very very rarely though.
is it dead? not quite, but almost, its dying a slow, drawn out, and painful death.
LuisR
It’s a shame that the good old IM is going that way. I still prefer Live Messenger or ICQ over the Facebook chat. You have file sharing, audio and video calls with the dedicated messenger programs, something I use quite often. And most importantly, you have more control on who can see you online and who can’t.
Wes
I really wish the people on my AIM would start talking again. It’s sad to say, but yes, IMing is dying, and quite terribly. I think only two people talk to me on AIM anymore, and only one is online regularly. Even then, that person is usually not paying attention to it. As for MSN, 90% of my contacts are regularly inactive.
Maybe someone should petition for an IM revival.
http://amphibi.us Shannon Peil
I still use AIM, and I’m invisible on facebook for one primary reason – fb chat has been ridiculously broken, clunky, and inconvenient since it was added. Beyond just functionality problems, it also allows anyone in your friends list to IM you, and I don’t believe I’m the only person who doesn’t consider every facebook friend to be “IM worthy.” People in my AIM buddy list are people I actually want to talk to, regardless of whether they have an fb account or not.
I think what we need is a service that allows texting from phone number to phone number with pc and mac clients instead of just phones. Typing is more convenient for when you are at the office, or at home – and then you can still text regularly while you are out.