Who invented instant messaging?

It was in 1970s that Instant Messaging appeared as an application to be used to connect communication of people logged on to the same machine, subsequently on their local network and finally all over the internet. In its initial stage the facility was available through operating system of multi-use like UNIX. The connectivity was possible in two ways peer to peer connectivity or peers were connected to a server. As it was all in a single window the people who were accessing internet learnt about it in the 1990s. By the late 1990s people were well aware of the latest graphic user interface messaging techniques along with ICQ and AOL Instant Messenger. The U. S. patent office gave two patents to AOL after few years.

At the same time some other companies also started developing the application with their proprietary rights but for this the user had to install many applications if he used more than one network. These were IBM, Excite, MSN, Yahoo etc.

To avoid the use of installing and running many applications, an open source application called Jabber was started in the year 2000. Now the instant messaging could work without a server. The new IM service provides features like video conferencing, VoIP and web conference. Some latest IM providers enhance their services by adding desktop sharing, IP radio and video adaptations.