How Does Instant Messaging Work

It all started with a telephone, was followed by e-mail, and now we have instant messaging. The most popular instant messaging applications are AOL Instant Messenger, Google Talk, Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo Messenger.

The first instant messaging application was ICQ, which was a free application by Mirabilis. ICQ was an abbreviation for 'I Seek You.' The ICQ application communicated with the server, when the user was online. Around the same time, AOL presented its chat rooms to the world. Later, AOL bought Mirabilis, along with its ICQ instant messaging application and changed it to AOL Instant Messenger (AIM).

The predecessor to instant messaging was chat rooms, in which more than two chatters messaged each other. In a chat room, a message sent by an user is seen by everyone in the chat room. The advantage that instant messaging has over emails is that it is faster. The downside is that both the sender and the receiver have to be online at the same time.

To use an instant messenger (IM), an user has to download a setup file from the software's official page. Then the user has to install the software and run the application, which is called a client. The user needs to register by selecting a username and password, and then log in by entering them. The IM server then checks if any of the user's 'buddies' are online. The IM server receives the IP address and the port number of the client.

In an IM application, every user has a buddy list or a contact list, which is a list of people who are the user's friends or colleagues. An instant message is a note that is sent by one user and received by another. The message can include web links, images (including photos) or any other files that can be shared. Instant messengers also allow simultaneous video and audio chats, in which the users can see and hear each other through the medium of video conferencing.

The user can enter text in a window and send the message to his buddy. The sender's client sends the message directly to the receiver's client without going through the server. The receiver of the message can then reply to the sender. The chat window shows all the messages that the two users have sent to each other. The user can go offline, close the window and exit the application when the chat is over. The client communicates to the server and the user's status is changed to offline in the buddy list of all his friends.

Applications like 'Trillian' and 'Pidgin' combine the buddy lists of different IM applications, showing the contacts of AIM, Yahoo Messenger, Windows Live Messenger and IRC in different colors. If a user's buddy uses several different applications, there is only one entry for him. Usually, IM applications cannot communicate with each other, so a user of one application cannot send a message to a user of another application. However, it is only AOL that allows its users to send messages to users of other IM applications.

IM applications are not secure so they should be used carefully. Conversations are encrypted but users still should not send credit card numbers in their messages. Hackers can get user logs, and can even send virus-infected files to other users. Voice over IP (VoIP) is less secure than IM.

There are many new advancements in IM applications. For example, users are informed by their IM application when they have new e-mail messages. Windows Live Messenger allows people who are playing Xbox 360, to send instant messages to each other. Users can change their icons, their IM skins and their status messages to 'away' or 'do not disturb'. The IM application also shows news and stock quotes. Meebo and eBuddy are web-based IM applications, so the user doesn't have to download the software. Qnext allows its users to listen to each other's music files without downloading them. The Pidgin application has a 'buddy pounce' feature that notifies an user about the status of his buddy. IM applications are even used in businesses for business people to cooperate on projects. It allows employees in a company to communicate with each other in real-time. Employees living in two different continents can also communicate easily and avoid the high long-distance call rates.