Instant messaging

When used in conjunction with the Internet or another computer network, instant messaging (IM) technology is a kind of online conversation that allows for real-time text communication. Transmission of messages between two or more parties occurs when each user enters text into a text box and initiates a transmission to the recipient(s), all of whom are connected to the same network, is standard practise. Unlike email, instant messaging allows you to have real-time discussions with your friends and family (hence "instant"). Most modern instant messaging applications (also known as "social messengers," "messaging apps," or "chat apps") make use of push technology and also include additional features such as emojis (or graphical smileys), file transfer, chatbots, Voice over IP, and video chat capabilities, among other things.

It is popular for instant messenger systems to facilitate connections between specified known users (often using a contact list, also known as a "buddy list" or "friend list"). Instant messaging systems can be standalone applications or integrated into a wider social media platform, or a website, where it can be used for conversational commerce, among other things. Conversations in "chat rooms" may also be carried out via instant messaging. Peer-to-peer (direct point-to-point transmission) or client–server technological architectures are available depending on the instant messaging protocol (an IM service centre retransmits messages from the sender to the communication device). It is generally differentiated from text messaging, which is often less complex and frequently utilises cellular phone networks to communicate.

It was during the early Internet period that instant messaging was first introduced, and the IRC protocol was the first to gain widespread acceptance. Instant messaging became popular in the late 1990s, and ICQ was one of the first closed and commercialised systems to emerge. As the Internet became more widely used, many competing services emerged to compete with it. BlackBerry Messenger, which was originally accessible exclusively on BlackBerry devices when it was first introduced in 2005, quickly rose to become one of the most widely used mobile instant messaging applications in the world, with over a billion users globally. BBM, for example, was the most widely used mobile messaging programme in the United Kingdom and Indonesia, respectively. Instant messaging is still very popular today, and IM applications are the most commonly used smartphone apps: in 2018, there were more than 1.3 billion monthly active users of Whatsapp and Facebook, and 980 million monthly active users of WeChat, according to data from Statista.