I have an AIM account that I use regularly. Yes, you heard that right.

See, there are still ways to use good ol' AOL Instant Messenger, I'll show you how.

First, the way AIM works is that you use the client to connect to the server, like most... Things.

Now, the official AIM servers shut down on December 15th, 2017, but if you had... Say... a replacement server... you'd easily be able to use AIM's client.

Phoenix and NINA do just that.

Phoenix is a server made by Wildman Productions in hopes to re-enable people to be able to use old messagin' clients like AIM, MSN, WLM, etc.

It's definitely the most popular server people use on AIM nowadays, (mostly because it's free) that said, as I'm typin' this it currently has 86 people online. There isn't a whole lot of people that still wanna use AIM.

I alternate between Phoenix and this next server I'll talk about here.

Now, if you want a server that's safer than others, (albeit less popular,) the best option you wanna go for is NINA.

NINA is a server made by Escargot which is still in beta that also hopes to re-enable people to be able to use AIM.

Unfortunately, NINA requires you to send a 5$ or more donation first before you can use it.

But don't think that that's just because they wanna take your money, I've been on their Discord server and accordin' to NINA's staff, they are many dollars in the hole from server hostin' fees, even with the donations.

Even with the paywall, NINA still has 58 users online as of typin' this, and I'm one of them. (If you have AIM installed, send me a message!)

If you want to use NINA but can't pay, you can always wait until after they release out of beta.

After you pick a server, you'll need a client to connect to the server. NINA's wiki has a list of AIM Clients to download.

It should be noted that when using that list, the likelihood is, something will block the download, usually Malwarebytes Browser Guard or Chrome itself. These are false alarms that only happen because, on the file host NINA uses, some wise guy hosted malware on a completely different section, but because Chrome/Malwarebytes now recognizes the whole site as a malware hostin' platform, the download gets blocked. Don't worry, it's safe.

I use AIM version 5.0.2398 since... It's the first one I picked and it kinda looks nice.

Once you pick your client and server, the rest varies based on what server you use. Your server's website should have a guide on how to connect to it using the client.

Oh yeah, and one more thing. You might wanna download and run AIM Tamer from Phoenix's website before startin' your AIM client, because there's a possibility that it may freeze your entire computer.