ICQ 8.2

A popular instant messaging application that has been around since 1996, ICQ was first developed and popularized by the Israeli company Mirabilis before being acquired by America Online (AOL) and then again in 2010 by Mail.Ru Group. ICQ started out before the instant messenger craze in the early to mid 2000s and has been going strong ever since. 

This instant messaging application has been freely available for download by its users since its initial release back in 1996. Since then, users could register an account and would be assigned a number rather than a user name. This is like a phone number that allows users to contact one another when they want initiate an instant messaging conversation through ICQ. You could also share a handle that you would use while using the messenger, as most people would be familiar with and has been popularized with other messengers. 

At the time ICQ was first released back in 1996, the idea of instant messaging was just starting to work its way into popularization. In this case, ICQ was the first real time, stand alone instant messaging service that was available freely to users on the Internet to communicate with co workers, family, and friends. At this time, email was still the most used service for communication for the common user, and IRC was also still an option but did not allow private conversation as a stand alone client. This is where ICQ came into play and basically wrote the blue print for later instant messaging services we know of today.