The exchange was with a user of AOL's AIM IM client demonstrating the interoperability of the two IM clients. The MS Windows ICQ client also provides a system tray background utility, ICQ NetDetect Agent, which will alert you to the presence of on-line members in your contact list, without have ICQ running as an application.Īfter establishing contact with a friend, a straightforward chat window is displayed where messages are exchanged. Alternatively, the Ignore and Invisible commands allows a user deny contacts. ICQ provides the option of random chatting with anyone willing to talk. The current ICQ interface offers two modes: simple and advanced (shown at right). Other ICQ users can contact you using either your UIN or emal address (if provided). The UIN allows anonymity if one does not wish to provide their email address. After download and installation a registration wizard assigns the user a unique Universal Internet Number (UIN). The most successful IM client to date, ICQ is a free IM client available for almost any computing platform. A strategy which is being challenged in court, since AOL initially pledged to support interoperability between IM systems. In a competitive commercial move however AOL currently blocks access to AOL users by other IM clients.

After being purchased by AOL, ICQ users gained the ability to converse with AOL users who used the AOL IM client AIM. The first and most successful IM system was ICQ, (a audio mnemonic for I Seek You). Interoperability between different IM clients and systems is not always possible. In addition to the mulitple synchronous comunication mechanisms, many IM clients provide for file transfer sharing, personal calendar services, email notifications and others.

Users can choose to engage in public chats with unknown users or restrict their contacts to their friends and relatives. Many Internet portals (Yahoo, MSN, AOL) provide IM for their users to help establish the presence of on-line communities. This allows users to form personal communtities much in the same way they do everyday. The biggest advantage it has over IRC, Web chats, and other methods is that it will auomatically let one know when someone in their contact list comes on-line. Instant Messaging (IM) client software allows users to converse with friends and family members using several synchronous communication mechanisms.

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