AIM is putting up a permanent away message.

AOL's instant messenger announced Friday it's shutting down effective Dec. 15. It thanked its "buddies" in a tweet for helping to make chat history.

tweet

"AIM tapped into new digital technologies and ignited a cultural shift, but the way in which we communicate with each other has profoundly changed," the company said in a statement.

The company teased to new products ahead, but not before playing up the nostalgia of the service soon to be lost.

"If you were a 90's kid, chances are there was a point in time when AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) was a huge part of your life. You likely remember the CD, your first screenname, your carefully curated away messages, and how you organized your buddy lists," the company said. "In the late 1990's, the world had never seen anything like it. And it captivated all of us."

The instant messenger allowed users to chat through customized usernames and set creative automatic responses when away. Started in 1997, AIM preceded the growing popularity of , WhatsApp, and Slack, which have all cornered off pieces of the social networking and chat markets.