Nowadays, it’s common for people to message each other with photos, videos, animojis, and emojis through popular apps like Snapchat, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and others. Given how mainstream these apps have become, it’s hard to believe that none of them existed just a decade or so ago.

For a quick trip down memory lane, check out some of the old instant messaging tools that the world loved before the internet became such a social place. If you’ve ever used any of these messaging services, which was your favorite?

In 1996, ICQ became the first instant messaging service to be adopted by users worldwide. Remember the "Uh-oh!" sound it made when a new message was received? It was eventually acquired by AOL in 1998 and peaked at over 100 million registered users. ICQ is still around today, updated for modern messaging on all platforms.

In 1997, AIM was launched by AOL and eventually became popular enough to capture the majority of instant messaging users in North America. You can no longer use AIM; it was shut down in 2017.