Farewell, AIM. 

AOL Instant Messenger, one of the more popular forms of communication in the early days of the internet, goes dark on Dec. 15, AOL, now known as Oath, said on Friday. 

AIM was once one of the dominant instant messaging platforms on the internet, helped by the massive number of dial-up subscribers using AOL internet service. After launching in 1997, it enjoyed its peak in the late ’90s and early 2000s.

But newer services offered by Google and others displaced AIM, and it lost most of its relevancy when users increasingly turned to their smartphones, which brought the rise of WhatsApp, Line, Facebook Messenger and a myriad of other services. 

Oath, a unit of Verizon, said it is shutting AIM down to focus on new products, and there would be no replacement for AIM. 

Oath said that the aim.com e-mail domain will still work.