Most Popular Instant Messengers 1995 - 2020
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 พ.ค. 2020
- In this data visualization video I look at the most popular instant messaging apps based on monthly active users. It includes the first graphical instant messaging app, PowWow. It was far ahead of its time but did not gain much traction.
I know there are many more apps but their numbers were either missing or inaccurate. Here are the ones I included:
1995
PowWow
First Graphical Standalone IM Client
First with VoIP, whiteboard, text-to-speech, surf together, audio player
1996
ICQ
First widely adopted IM client
1997
AIM
Initially integrated into AOL Desktop
1998
Yahoo! Messenger
1999
QQ
Popular in China
1999
MSN Messenger
AKA Windows Live Messenger
2003
Skype
Focused on video-chat
2005
Google Talk
2005
Blackberry Messenger
2009
WhatsApp
Developed by former Yahoo employees
2009
Kik Messenger
Reached 40% of US teens by 2016
2010
Viber
2011
WeChat
2011
iMessage
2011
SnapChat
2012
LINE
2012
Hike Messenger
2013
Telegram
2013
Facebook Messenger
Thank you for Watching
Discord: am I a joke to you?
TheMiddle Noob true
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA
Majula1 r/ihadastroke
@@iamisgone4208 you do realize people speak languages other than english?
@DavidDGTNT either way its still retarded to type subreddits into youtube
QQ: most popular for years
Me: wtf is QQ?
Chinese no more said
Jin di zhi wa
Jajaja ja x2
Your definitely not a 90’s kid
Because it's from China and China likes hiding things
Out of all of them, MSN Messenger is the one that has a special place in my heart.
As a person from russia, I am shocked that someone misses such crap as msn
@@user-eh7iz5jf7l it was just a vital part of my childhood personally. we used it to talk when we had to be inside at night and shit.
I never knew anymore with MSN. Most people I knew had AIM. I also had Yahoo Messenger for a few people.
For me, it's ICQ
@@xenobreak1160 im born 91 and evryone my age and around used msn
Nothing will have the emotional connection MSN had. There's a reason why it remains in the hearts of many. Coming home from school and login on, chatting for hours, signing in and out to get your crush's attention, it was a different era altogether.
Such good days, uncomparable to tik tok, ig and the rest of shitty stuff new generation uses.
i was one of the people on till 2-3 am, i miss wanting to get in contact with someone and leaving a msn message and waiting for reply, it was fun
And BBM. Both are iconic.
@@nabawi7 100%
Different person, different kind.
Some people drawn to WA, some others to Skype. Etc, etc.
I personally have a strong memory to mIRC.
"QQ - Popular in China"
That's the only description you need
Of course it is
Anything that has a huge amount of people in it but we never heard of is probably from China
QQ hosts one of the biggest user bases for instant messaging and yet the Chinese are still somewhat disconnected from the rest of the world
M Levi Harris Yeah,I'm from China.But even tho the gov banned almost every social media from the western world,you still get to see a lot of chinese users around these platforms,that's just crazy,so imagine what if all these platforms were not banned at all,that would be insane 😂
Shawn Xiao, insane would be if China actually started treating its citizens like human beings. :-)
Shawn Xiao yeah its very interesting, how do you get around it may I ask? Am I right in saying youtube is banned ?
*No Discord*
*_"Several people are typing..."_*
Here you are again omg
What's wrong too is the Skype numbers. Xbox live runs Skype services in the background to provide chat functions on their platform so all Xbox users should be treated as using Skype too.
why are you everywhere
This guy is fucking everywhere. Holy shit.
Why a you everywhere
I loved reading the comments and seeing how much everyone shared my love of MSN. Microsoft were fools to buy skype and shut down MSN. If they had kept MSN and made a mobile app for it I reckon it would be up there with WhatsApp today.
120% agree! Microsoft sucks man
Still miss Messenger.
Edit: MSN Messenger, the true messenger.
Nope - MSN was unknown in many countries, even though it was pre-installed with Windows XP it was still ignored in many, many countries.
it is clearly visible the moment in 2010 when they started changing protocol every day kicking away all users using unofficial clients
We was even able to get MSN Messenger on our family Computer which was a desktop Mac running Mac OS 9, and as I remember it came bundled in with office for Mac.
I’m so sad to see how far ICQ has fallen. It will always have a special place in my heart 🥺
uh-oh
Many late nights chatting to crushes in my late teens.
I still have my ICQ number and often sign in and see my contact list from litterally upto 20 years ago 😁😁
Arrrh the memories
@@BxTekNurd I still know it by heart (7-digit) after all these years. Had over 250 contacts added around Y2k. Switched to Skype afterwards (when it was still great).
Uh oh!
Only reason why people used messenger was because fb forced us to use it lmao
I love messenger, I don't even use Facebook but I love messenger
@@Genebear2Gaming are you okay? tas bien?
JWAG2G same
I once downloaded messenger but uninstall it at once. I guess I am counted. Sad
@@jayyu1717 "Monthly Users"
2020: Zoom Cloud Meeting
Its trash
@@MysteriousMatt89 of course.
Car Guy it’s not
Shut up kid
Zoom is trash
RIP AIM everyone used it where I lived growing up, I remember being on for the final day when they shut it down. Back in school you'd ask for a girls AIM not her phone number.
lmao hey pat
Hi Pat!
I can't tell if it troll or not 0-0 life has so many uno Reverses •-• anyways hello =>
Lol Jen left you
What would you do with her landline phone number? Call her parents :)
How I miss Yahoo Messenger and MSN Messenger. Those were good times back in the late 90’s and early 2000’s.
It's amazing how many times Google tried an instant messenger and failed yet didn't give up and created a new one
Kaizala now 😅
they failed so miserably than I didn't even know they tried that before reading your comment now lol
Do they have one now? I’m assuming not if it’s not that popular
Google failed at anything related to social media
@@BuggyDub they made google hangouts, which was alright, then a modern version called google chats which nobody uses except schools
I didn't even know that whatsapp has been around since 2009 LoL
Damn I remember when it first came out and I had a phone that didn't support it! Way back when Android wasn't a leading OS 😂
It was on those black Berry's
BK?
I was used it on Nokia 5320
Well now u know lol
MSN Messenger always in my heart, thx for the best memories.
Beautiful msn!
I still remember when, sending the trills over and over again to my friends, I made their PCs crash.
Good old days
QQ to Whatsapp: You took everything from me
Whatsapp: I don't even know who are you
69th like
Moritz Van Hofen 🥾🇹🇯
287th like
296th dislike
OMG LMAONSJJSJSJIAOAKAJAJA
Rip MSN messenger 😭 you were and will always remain the best in our hearts
@@michelvandenbergofficial Damn! Are the classic Windows Live versions still revivable?
@@miljororforsprakpartiet290 what do u mean exactly???
It’s like, running on a private server, it is completely unrelated to Microsoft
@@michelvandenbergofficial The Windows Live Messenger program? Previously you had to use Messenger Reviver for that.
@@miljororforsprakpartiet290 not anymore
MSN messenger could never compete against google
Man I miss the old Skype in the early 2010s. That ring theme and text message sound effect are burned into my brain lmao
Imagine being the last PowWow user and not knowing it
2021...Telegram:
my moment started
Same here 🙏🏼
Telegram allows us to chat freely
--------from China
naaaaa the problem is....itm offers nothing new instead of whatsapp......
@@elternero6624 whatsapp is becoming extremely censorial due to pressure from the Spanish government. Telegram is inevitable at this point.
Signal all the way
Who else has never heard of QQ?
This is a communication software developed by Tencent, just like WeChat
China ! No more questions!
me
Me
Same
I am 24, about to be 25 and I realized that I was in my teens when all these social media platforms exploded onto the scene. It explains a lot about my generation for better or worse
I've been using the internet since the mid 90's. For how popular QQ was - I have NEVER heard of this messenger nor have I heard of anyone talk about it.
Now how many of those accounts are:
- Real and Active
- Abandoned.
- Fake.
- User is dead.
- ALT account.
- "Deleted"
Yeah.
For example, the owner of my google account drank cyanide yesterday
@II DEMON II Thank you.
it did say at 0:06 that it’s by monthly users..
@@staringgasmask 😂
Shout out to MSN live messenger. Man those were the days.
Kamula MSN wen porsel matod dlenk agar
do you remember the gif thing of the guy drinking a fizzy drink and then burping and then lifting his legs up and farting? and all the weird fonts
@@Furdonkulous yeah. too bad its all gone since many years
Use escargot msn
Top 20 Country by Total Electricity Generation (1902-2020)
th-cam.com/video/J_AhRPwJj04/w-d-xo.html
Proud to be a Pow Wow user! What nostalgia. Oh god I'm old.
I've used ICQ for soooooooooo many years. Good to see it still held on till now. :)
I’m surprised discord didn’t make the list despite having 140 million users
discord isn't really a messenger- it's more like a modern implementation of chat rooms.
@@tariq4259 because Skype is a messenger. Discord is not.
A messenger is an application focused on direct communication between two people. While such apps usually do support "group" messaging, it's just expanding on that same messaging between two people.
Other apps may include some form of messaging or mail between two people, but it's not its primary focus.
Discord, for example, is focused on individual servers, with dozens of people chatting amongst themselves across multiple rooms - as I said, it's the modern equivalent of chat rooms, like Yahoo Chat.
@@Q-TebGamesNL Group chats are not the same thing as chat rooms/servers. The former works exactly like a direct message, but with more than two people, where individuals have to be manually added, a room/server is a virtual space where any number of people can enter or leave, plus there are room/server based features and controls. in a group message, you can't do anything different than you could in a 1v1 message, beyond basic management like removing someone from a group.
Just because you haven't experienced or used such features in a Discord server, or just because a messenger group fits your groups specific needs, doesn't mean the differences aren't there.
I mean, if you drive a pickup truck and never haul or carry anything, it doesn't make it a car.
@@digitalutopia1 you do know that you can't get into a discord server if you're not invited (manually added) / don't have a permalink right?
@@Q-TebGamesNL A link is all you need - that's not exactly an invite. Anyone in the server can get that link and post it anywhere, and all the people who see that link can copy and paste it anywhere as well. Sure, you can have the server set up to not let people see the content of certain rooms, or not be able to chat until they're verified, bur you actually have to set those options. By default anyone with a link can find the server and chat.
%90 of comments: Where is Discord?!
%1.9 of comments: Discord?!
%8.1 of comments: Discord is where?!
The AnxietyTime my comment: where Instagram?
@Sunny plays Games u play games and didn't know discord?
Its basically all gamers god
Discord is social media duh
@@rahmadhy9598 I also know about discord but I never used it beacuse I didn't know how to use it
😅😅😅😅
DISCORD pls
It's strange how people talk about all the profits, they've been making through trading of bitcoin, while am here not making any profit at all. Please can Someone put me through on the right path or at least tell me what I'm doing wrong?
Same here, My portfolio has been going down the drain while I try trading,I just don't know what I do wrong.
Trading is tough and that even the best traders have substantial losses along the way.
No matter how much effort I put into my trades, I still make more losses than profits. Trading really is hardwork.
No matter how much preparation you put into your trades, what matters is your ability as a trader to use a wide variety of strategies in a disciplined manner. Trading is hard work, to be safe you should probably get an expert to help with more profitable trades.
My advice to newbies, do well to carry out your research so you're accustomed to the nature of the market. The risks as it is a very volatile market and requires expertise.
Looking forward to seeing this updated.
ICQ in 2020: I remember when you all stopped using me because of MSN, but where is it now? Patience is my biggest virtue.
It was Skype in my case. Still original, not the later Microsoft's.
I mean, given that Microsoft bought Skype and then integrated their accounts system into it, Skype IS MSN Messenger with extra steps.
Msn was tossed out because Microsoft imagined that buying Skype would be a good replacement for MSN, but they ruined it. maybe if msn wasn't discontinued, could still be around
Am I the only one who never stopped using it from 1995?
QQ: haha nobody gets more popular than me!!
Whatsapp: Hold my messages.
Lol whatsapp say: QQ what’s up?😂
@@cursed_sama748 lol
Interestingly, i never know QQ is most popular IM for years before i see this.
hold my travas
Rather: WhatsApp has entered the chat. :)
You just summed up the last 20 years of my life in 5 minutes
crazy how long ICQ has stuck around. will always remember you :)
I can't believe I'm rooting for a goddamn messaging app
Understandable.have a great day
@@akash_gupta whatsapp
Well, you shouldn't root for any corporate business product. Use whatever is most beneficial, then dump their ass when something better comes around. This is the way.
🤔🤔whatsapp y Telegram...
@@kennethmcgregor5953 same lol
I never heard about QQ until I see this video. By the way nice background music... May I know it's name?
Qq was popular in China
Qq was for pretty long the only popular social media app in China. Then WeChat came, which is a mix of Instagram, Snapchat, TH-cam, WhatsApp etc.
@Lefteris Flerianos reminds me of car XXX.
yo lo most people in china have a VPN, including me. That’s how I am on TH-cam rn
呵呵哒小李子君 well yeah true, but WeChat I think is better than both WhatsApp and Facebook messenger
In Spain, about 2010, the golden era of social networks (actually social) , "tuenti" became the main one of young people. Over time it included wall posting, photo sharing, video games partying, and at some point, a real life chat. The design was simple yet delightful, and the community was amazing. No one shared posts of celebrities or professional information brands. All the content was dorky authentic pieces of life people you cared about shared. And adding a friend was so exciting, doing so meant you two actually intended to speak with each other.
I was an ICQ kid. Although that doesn't mean much as I also had AIM, MSN, and Yahoo! and I always preferred texting and forums to group chats. I used Skype to stay in touch with family and friends back at home when I was studying in Japan. And I have had pretty much all the big name messenger apps since Whatsapp installed, but don't really use them.
I was an ICQ kid too but switch to MSN bc everyone I knew was switching
QQ : No one can defeat me
Messenger :But he can.
*_WhatsApp appears_*
Funny thing is, QQ is majority Chinese users. WhatsApp needed the population of the whole world just to beat China. And WeChat is majority Chinese too.
@@gwot how about india? I think that people are forgetting that india also has billions (litteraly billions) of people.
Jokes on u whatsapp is owned by facebook (who owns fb messenger, if u meant "messenger" by fb messenger)
@@SwagSwagSenate Most of them are poor and don't spend much time on the Internet etc
@@user-qp3me6hw5c more than 50% of users are from india
Here is your answer to "Where is discord?"
Discord had 250million users in 2019 so it would be above Snapchat
We need the monthly active users not the total count
Thank you good sir
It’s monthly users not all round users
Discord has 56 million users per month, so it should be above BBM but below Hike
@Osterage Howards that doesn't change that discord is an instant messaging service
Loved the Yahoo Messenger back in those days, high school memories
I had ICQ, MSN, AOL & Yahoo back in the day and always thought Yahoo was the top one. There was also some chats which combined the most popular in one program which was good.
I still remember when I was a teenager using MSN, it was awesome.
We used to ask people the time they're gonna be online the next day in order to be able to chat, we had to be online at the same time, and if you send an offline message, you'll enter that cycle that you will have to wait for the next day to get an answer and its goes on forever 🤣
Dude, this brings me a lot of memories..
I think new generations have no idea about all this stuff, for us the 90's generation, it a revolutionary thing.
* Excuse my English please.
Same as habbo hotel:)
I don't even know what you're talking.im in since 2005
Sem problemas, meu inglês é pior
Yeah I totally get you. When a friend of my had an ISDN line with 128k and he could use Skype to a certain extend it was overwhelming for us.
Make calls for free! With video! Amazing!
@@b4sh936 I still play habbo lol
PowWow: Why we’re still here...
just to suffer..
We're*
@@page970 are we*
Bruuuuuhhhhh, why watching the vid I thought of commenting the exact same thing wtf
@@margaritahorrachperez3512 tf bruh
I am legit surprised ICQ lasted as long as it did. I was using it in the 90s!
These videos are great. It's like Narcos, but without the gore and subtitles.
Windows XP has been released: MSN messenger immediately grows up.
Golden days
I think the same xd
Miss those days
MSN was the best :c
@@ErukanuSenpai you can still use it by searching escargot msn
Next ones: Telegram, Zoom, Microsoft Teams maybe.
A couple questions, what the hell is zoom and why did you say maybe on Ms Teams? It'd make the list since it was used in online school
Microsoft Teams??
Not a chance.
@Яна РомановаMany people not like to use it
@@sanchu6335 How you dont know what zoom is lol
@@erickfanti how and why would I?
I remember the ol' MSN days. You had to be online so had to be there to chat. When Facebook messenger came out, you didnt have to be, this caused the demise of MSN even when MSN included the "offline" message feature. Now that you didnt have to be "online" to receive messages, many people fell out of contact as some people just didnt bother to reply to people. It wasnt the start of ghosting (texts were a thing long before this) but it certainly popularised it.
I love that Aol - AIM the icon looks like a person running
WTF IS QQ? Its like Invoker’s broken cast.
Flict-G
As a Chinese I agree and disagree at the same time cause I never used it
QQ大学里用得挺多的
S
Shiming Zhang 你说的对
Whats invoker?
0:54
PowWow: change da world, my final message, goodbye
i cri 😭✊ stay strong R.I.P PowWow
I was at home eating dorito when fone ring
“PowWow is kil”
“no”
I remember starting to use ICQ on my old Mac back in '97 or so. Primitive times with dial up modem (28.8 kbit/s) and per minute fee, you had to plan when to be online. No online 24/7 like now! :)
the way MSN start losing users until disappearing is really sad. it was truly amazing back in the 2000s and till this date, no one has released anything that compares to it.
I was surprised to see that skype didnt falter. most of my friends and i stopped using it after they made that one god awful update that changed it entirely. It became extremely unintuitive and we were not able to find core functions, like muting yourself with a button or even the friendlist.
I think it’s still widely used in certain countries
Many companies use it
@@maxonite Skype would be at 0 if this included 2021, Skype end of life was. July of this year
It’s gonna be replaced by Teams.
@SteelRodent yea ms teams has some cool features but overall is awful and really buggy and slow
Where is Discord. Doesn't it count to this programms?
I can't imagine that Discord have less Users than ICQ in 2020.
@@OmKhalasi u 2
discord should be here
Om Khalasi no ur bad
Om Khalasi mr cringey screen shotted roblox profile pic
Discord count as a voip communications software. Mostly focusing on content delivery. So i guess not?
Video Full of memories
can't believe how big QQ was and this is my first time hearing about it
2021: PornTube Messenger
Now this will top it all
Lol
Telegram?
LOOOOOLLL
Yeah the all new messenger where you can find new friends for having _fun_
Whats app: *comes in*
Other instant messengers: why do I hear boss music?
How tf was qq numbers times bigger than all the other apps combined.
I swear AIM, Yahoo Messenger, and MSN were all ahead of its time. They all basically have set the tone for the instant messaging apps we all have today
I'm surprised ICQ made it back into the list at the end.
Cuz nobody got blackberries nomo 🤣
im surprised discord didnt
@@kachagaming discord isnt a chat app, its a room app
@@guifdcanalli It's skype with more features; It counts
Legends never die
I'm glad to see that Telegram is climbing.
man i thought you meant telegraph and got proper confused
Yeah, telegram is so underrated. They offer privacy while others aren't
@@fadelalrasyid3894 It offers thousands of very cool features.
@@antonwestergaard9035 Ahahahahahahah, legit
Telegram is litteraly better than WhatsApp in every form. Same features, plus a lot of improvements
ICQ and MSN Messenger will have always special place in my heart😢 i miss the good old days 🥺😥
ICQ gave me the best internet experience ever, I met so many great people online from all over the world. Suddenly there were no borders, and everyone felt equal. We talked about life, shared out stories, we joked, and at times we flirted. In 1998 I started to talk with a young woman online, 6000km away from me.... 25 years later I'm still married to her.
Thank you for this
I miss the old Skype days..
Old days when you played minecraft with your friends
Игорь Блажко tho i was gonna type it
@@mops2k648 true
Coronavirus made Skype relevant again
Me too... Microsoft destroyed every single bit of skype
Zoom: *rises up*
Students: Why do I hear school music?
hahaha online classes
I gave u another like😁
I was using ICQ, MSN and Yahoo, Yahoo was my everything with cool emojis, those backgrounds and my lover there, but loved MSN more
PowWow: I just wanna be...Apreciated
He alone.
When Telegram will be 1st, we'll all have a party
Hahaha 😜😜
When WhatsApp entered that chat I was like aww snap lol
Telegram is awesome😜😜
Yeah telegram is better than whatsapp idk why ppl dont like it
69 likes 11 : 34 am North America Pacific Time May 8th 2020 Friday
I LOVE watching chart races!!!
I'm glad I downloaded the icq uh oh sound years ago. It's my text tone now.
When you will finish to watch this video you will search "QQ"
Actualy🤣🤣🤣
Yep..
LOL..Yes I did........XD
nah
No because we have banned all Chinese
I can still hear the AIM door sounds in my head 20 years later...
Goodbye
for me i hear the uh oh from icq
What the stuff was that webpage in the 2000's that you could login all of your messengers including Facebook and myspace without having to install anything on your PC? It must of had really good backing cause you could put scifi channel wallpaper as your background.
We all used MSN messenger at university. I studied Economics and we passed formulas and other info between computers.
QQ: I GREW UP DUE TO CHINA'S POPULATION
WHATSAPP: I GREW UP DUE TO INDIA'S POPULATION LOL 😂 😂 😂
Singapore and Malaysia too
And Latin America
Whatsapp and fb is the secret of bjp win
😂😂😂
Los únicos que no utilizan WhatsApp son los estadounidenses jajajajajaja
Indonesia too
I like how you introduce them to the right of the screen before adding them to the graph ❤ keep it up!!
Grade school/high school: MSN Messenger on one side of the screen, AIM on the other.
College still had both, but most of my friends had moved to 100% AIM by then.
I remember watching speed draws where people would occasionally answer their friends on MSN on windows xp :"0
I miss the MSN days.
I remember back in 2007 right after school id hop on the computer and sign in to MSN and stay logged on to let my friends know i was online. Good old days.
You can still use! Search for It on google :Escargot MSN server
Hello?
Yahoo messenger. I miss it so much, including the emoticons that talk.
Jenial bonito gracias estupendo
Remember the good ol days we used to talk on PowWow in 95? All 14k of us, such good memories. Well I don't remember either because I wasn't born yet but it was nice
Ah yes, good ol times before i was born
@@wewo9872 exactly! Those were the real days
Peter still missing you, uncle Ben
Yeah science
Does anyone else bet on these like they're horse races and lose their entire life savings? Just me?
Haha
What about trillian? Technically that wasn't it's own service, but combined several. Would IRC be considered an "instant message program" I had never heard of pow wow or QQ(the latter understandably!) until I saw this.
Trillian was good !! I used it a lot !
Dang I remembered using Yahoo Messenger back in college for communicating with my classmates for our projects. This was back in 2007-2011.
I expected ICQ to be way more popular than this shows.
LoL dir wurde das auch random vorgeschlagen 😆
To be fair back int he late 90's early 00's there the number of people using instant messenger, most used email.
I agree. There were a lot of third-party IMs that used ICQ API/protocols. My guess is that software were not taken into account.
Nobody gonna talk about he a famous TH-camr?
It's all relative. By 1999 standards, those numbers are huge. ICQ's popularity was also pretty short lived when you think about it - I guess it feels longer because it was an exciting time 😂
ICQ and the 'oh-oh' sound :')
Yas!
So nostalgic
th-cam.com/video/3wnQcZ3HaBQ/w-d-xo.html
when i was in high school and college i had AOL IM and MSN and Yahoo IM
Wait, Mxit didn't make the list? That was dope
Fun fact ICQ is still actually around, and being developed
It's Russian owned since 2010 now. Bought from AOL, I believe.
It is now mainly used by hackers and criminals
@@patrickayooladokun lol, ICQ now is owned by Mail Ru Group, that is close to Russian government. All the data is collected and could be viewed by FSB. No criminal would use it, it's just hilarious. Criminals use Signal and Telegram
@@DonPetrushka I know, that you are Russian))
@@untitled5425 you've got fabulous deductive reasoning skills 😁
I like how almost ANYTHING Google makes to go with a trend just doesn't hold up.
Yeah, same with Google +, but they can afford to make those programs without amy losses
Google have done many incredible things that are #1 in popularity so they don't really give a shit if their messenger app doesn't get attention.
I mean i wouldn't really consider 5 million users a failure
So they just buy the competition
.just like Facebook bought whatsapp
Susan is the worst
This is missing a lot notably IRC, but also some more niche ones like xfire as well as cross platform clients like Trillian.
I spent a lot of time in the AIM chat rooms in the early 2000s.