AOL’s long-running instant messenger service that was core to many people’s (including mine) first social experiences on the internet, will shut down once and for all on December 15th. AOL made an announcement about the shut down. AIM was one of the first and most successful instant messengers, widely used in the late ‘90s and even throughout the 2000s.

With the proliferation of smartphones, texting has become the best thing to use when communicating with our friends and family.

Some people are feeling rather nostalgic, and some were surprised it lasted as long.

Other classic chat apps have shut down in recent years, too. MSN Messenger shut down in 2014, and Yahoo Messenger shut down last year (although Yahoo also launched a new messaging service under the same name). It was only a matter of time until AIM joined them, but there’s still some nostalgia in seeing it go.

But there is a silver lining for this situation. We get to make the perfect away message.