Some of my opinions on each IM Revival

IM-RevivalsRetro-TechTechnology

Hello Everyone! This is my second post on my blog, today, I will be giving some opinions on IM Revivals!

For some of you (if you didn’t know), There are Projects in the Retro Community which aim to manage to connect to old instant messaging clients like MSN/WLM, AIM, ICQ even Napster (which wasn’t a im, but along with music, it had a chat feature), Their Parent Companies (Microsoft for WLM, AOL for AIM, Mirabilis, the first parent of ICQ etc..) have shut them down, the recent one was 2023 (ICQ), IM Revivals host a server somewhere and then use those servers to connect to, for example, AIM, but of course, it requires reverse engineering them and it takes time for them to implement features/clients fully (As of November 2025, Nina (Defunct) and Escargot (Joint with Nina) support all versions of AIM), but overall, it allows people to login and reexperience nostalgia again.

Moving on, here are my opinions on each IM Revivals:

  • CrossTalk - Was created by someone who didn’t like the direction of Nina (Defunct) and Escargot (joint with Nina) it was heading - 8/10 Because of WLM 2011/12 support, but Oscar (AIM and ICQ) is still under works

  • Nina (Defunct) and Escargot (joint with nina) Created by tonyshowoff (aka tonyshoveaway) - 0/10 I was a proud member, but after it was revealed tonyshoveaway was looking to take peoples money for business (context soon for some who don’t know) and use it for themselves (also more context soon)

That’s all the revivals I use, Two isn’t much, but soon, I might give insight into the Nina/Escargot Drama on my blog.

Bye for now!