A brief history of the development of instant messaging IM

We are no strangers to instant messaging (IM). QQ, WeChat, YY, Feishu, and Dingding are some of the instant messaging software we are more familiar with. But did you know? It took a long time for instant messaging to develop into what it is today.

We are no strangers to instant messaging (IM). QQ, WeChat, YY, Feishu, and Dingding are some of the instant messaging software we are more familiar with.

But did you know? It took a long time for instant messaging to develop into what it is today.

 

Barbaric era

The evolution of human computing tools has gone through different stages from simple to complex, from low-level to high-level, from the knotted note in ancient times to the abacus slide rule and so on.

 

In 1946, the University of Pennsylvania in the United States gave birth to the world's first electronic computer, opening the era of human computers. This computer named "ENIAC" uses 17,840 transistors, weighs up to 28 tons, and its calculation speed is only 5,000 times per second.

The advent of "ENIAC" is of epoch-making significance, indicating that the age of electronic computers has officially arrived.

In the next few decades, computer technology developed at an astonishing speed, going through the age of electronic tube digital machines, transistor digital machines, integrated circuit digital machines, and large-scale integrated circuit computers.

The integrated circuit digital machine, which was born in 1964, has a calculation speed of millions or even tens of millions of times per second. The reliability has been significantly improved, and the price has further dropped. The birth of communication tools laid a solid foundation.

 

Ancient Time

In the 1970s, the world's first computer-assisted teaching system, the Plato system, gave birth to the earliest instant messaging program.

 

When the user enters the chat information in the program, the user in another terminal will immediately see the message sent by the other party. However, unlike today's instant messaging software, in current instant messaging, the other party in the conversation will only see the message after one party presses Enter to confirm the sending. The instant messaging program at that time was really "instant messaging."

 

Every character entered by the user will be immediately displayed on the screens of both parties, and the deletion and modification of every character will also be reflected on the screen immediately.

In the 1980s, UNIX/Linux-based instant messaging tools were widely used by engineers and academia.

 

This type of instant messaging tool has achieved many basic functions, but they have not yet entered the Internet and can only be used in the local area network.

Modern Time

In 1996, three Israelis, Visger, Wadi and Goldfinger, got together and decided to develop a software that people could communicate directly on the Internet. Soon ICQ was born.

This is the first Internet-based instant messaging software that is widely used. At the same time that ICQ appeared, instant messaging software developed rapidly, and a large number of similar software appeared, such as Gaim, Miranda IM, Trillian, etc.

 

These softwares have a fatal flaw. They use different protocols and cannot communicate with each other. Users need to run more than two instant messaging software at the same time to realize chat.

 

Soon after ICQ was born, China's instant messaging software also began to develop. Ma Huateng founded Shenzhen Tencent Computer System Co., Ltd., imitating ICQ, adding a letter "O" before ICQ, which means "opening i seek you", which means open ICQ. Soon after in 2000, OICQ was renamed QQ due to the infringement storm.

Modern instant messaging software is no longer satisfied with instant chat, but integrates social networking, games, entertainment, etc., to form a huge industrial chain based on instant messaging.

modern

The popularity of mobile phones ushered in the second spring of the development of instant messaging software. Various countries have derived different instant messaging software, such as Whatsapp in the United States, LINE in Japan, Kakao Tall in South Korea, and WeChat in China.

The difference between instant messaging and modern instant messaging is that the field is more segmented. There are both personal-oriented instant messaging tools and enterprise-level instant messaging tools.

 

Different from individuals, enterprise-level instant messaging software places more emphasis on security, practicability, stability, and scalability. Some enterprise-level instant messaging software also supports customization, which greatly improves the communication efficiency within the enterprise.

 

The development of instant messaging software is only a product of the torrent of information on the Internet, but it has also experienced more than 50 years of development from its birth to its prosperity. Now instant messaging has become a part of people's work and life.