Need to talk to a friend in another country? Don’t want to send an SMS but want to ensure that he gets the message right now and right away? This is where the internet has come in and has revolutionized the way we communicate. We had student accounts before because Email was the preferred mode of communication for faster communication and more so was the most rapidly adopted form of communication.

It started of with the need for business communication and people started writing letter, which extended to couriers for faster reaching and then came the Email. Its become so rapidly spread that many of us email instead of writing formal paper letters or even calling people on the telephone. It can be said that it has now become a formal mode of communication in many parts of the world.

Now for the invent of IM, it emerged in the simple sense because servers at times acted faulty and the email didn’t go through in time. There also came the need to know if the user you have send the email to is online on the internet or no? Therefore came the need for a program which will get rid of all the disadvantages mentioned below and what emerged out of this was the invention of the Instant Messaging Programs like Messengers.

Most IM programs provide these features:

• Instant messages - Send notes back and forth with a friend who is online
• Chat - Create a chat room with friends or co-workers
• Web links - Share links to your favorite Web sites
• Video - Send and view videos, and chat face to face with friends
• Images - Look at an image stored on your friend's computer
• Sounds - Play sounds for your friends
• Files - Share files by sending them directly to your friends
• Talk - Use the Internet instead of a phone to actually talk with friends
• Streaming content - Real-time or near-real-time stock quotes and news
• Mobile capabilities - Send instant messages from your cell phone

So, we have all these facilities but how do you know who is online to talk to. Therefore came, the feature of contact list or friends list where you add them to your messenger and you will be indicated each time the contact comes online.

For business and personal use, there have been many inventions. File sharing has become a very interesting option now and has been made easier and faster on these messengers. Also the advent of your own picture sticking up with your name is an important feature that has been added, therefore showing exactly who you are talking to.

Recently, the feature of talking has gained importance and is a very good application where instead of phone you can use the headphones and microphone to talk the person you are chatting with on the other end.

The future of IM’s will be with the same functionalities present on mobiles phones as well. At present all of these features are not present on the mobiles but technology is being built, on symbian platforms.