Research Articles

Types of Instant Messaging

IRC

Screen capture of XChat

IRC, or Internet Relay Chat, was created in August 1988 by Jarkko Oikarinen. It is a form of instant messaging, and allows for many users to communicate to each other in a ‘channel’, which is basically a type of room where users can send messages to be seen by other users in the same channel. It also allows two users to chat with each other in a one-to-one style, and also private messaging, where users can send messages to be viewed by only one other party.

There are many networks in the world for IRC that use very different servers, however any IRC network can be accessed with the same software. The largest four IRC networks are EFnet, IRCnet, QuakeNet, and Undernet, and are called ‘The Big Four’.

In an IRC network, users can send commands to a server, and the server will execute that command or give the user information based on the command given. For example, the ‘KICK’ command removes a particular user from a channel, and the ‘INFO’ command gives the user information about a particular server.

Though IRC is easy and convenient to use, the option of anonymity may lead to problems such as impersonation. Also, because anyone in the channel is able to talk to the user, the user may be harassed by a stranger with little to do about it.

GUI Based Instant Messengers

Screen capture of Miranda IM

GUI (Graphical User Interface) based Instant Messengers are the most commonly used Instant Messengers in modern times. The first GUI based Instant Messenger was ICQ, created by Mirabilis. There are many companies that develop this kind of Instant Messaging software and two of them are described below:

Windows Live Messenger

Windows Live Messenger, or MSN Messenger for older versions of it, was created by Microsoft and released in July 1999. Up to MSN Messenger 6, which was mainly text based, it had text and audio messaging features, and the ability to transfer files. It also allowed users to group their contacts, which means to separate contacts up into different groups based on the user’s choice.

From Version 6, MSN Messenger became more GUI based, adding emoticons, avatars and backgrounds to the mix. This probably drew more users to using MSN. A ‘wink’ feature, which is basically an animated file sent to another user, was also added in Version 7. In Version 8, MSN Messenger was renamed to the current Windows Live Messenger and many things were introduced, for example offline instant messaging, which allowed users to send messages to offline contacts and the contact would then receive the messages when they got online. Windows Live Messenger also has a feature which allows two users to play games like Tic-tac-toe and Minesweeper with each other. Such games do help to alleviate boredom encountered during work, but can be distracting. Time may be spent unnecessarily on such games if used irresponsibly.

Skype

Skype was created by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis and first released in 2003. Although it uses text messaging, it uses mostly voice based messaging, via Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), and allows for users to call each other via telephone. Skype has two major features, which are SkypeOut and SkypeIn. SkypeOut allows a user to call any phone number in various countries from their computer, and the fee is charged based on the country called. SkypeIn, on the other hand, allows a user to receive phone calls from their computer that others dialled to a registered number in certain countries. Skype also supports videoconferencing, and has software that can be used by mobile phones.

Network Based Messengers

Network based messaging can be seen prevalently in older operating systems, like in the ‘Talkomatic’ application in PLATO systems and the ‘talk’ application in early UNIX systems.

The ‘Talkomatic’ application was created by Doug Brown in 1973, primarily to allow users to communicate with each other on the system. Up to five people could talk to each other via the application, which worked by splitting the screen up into horizontal windows, one for each user, so that they could see messages being sent. Users could also see messages as they were typed, and this application gained popularity among the users of PLATO.

Another application, similar to ‘Talkomatic’, was made and bore more resemblance to modern instant messengers. It allowed users to run another application in the background while using it, however only two users could communicate to each other at any one time.

©The Probl(IM)s Group 2008