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 was the most active server people used on AIM, but now NINA seems to have overtaken it. (Mostly because NINA's more secure.) that said, it currently has 114 people online. There's still a few people on it left.

Now, if you want a server that's safer than others, (and more active, at that,) the option you wanna go for is NINA.

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

The time that I made this page finally shows it's age. When I made this page NINA's AIM was still in beta and required a donation, but now it's out of beta and available to all. Now, NINA seems to be the most active server I can find.

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, 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 508 users online, 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 AIM may freeze your entire computer.