An AOL logo marks the company's office in Hamburg, Germany, in this 2010 file photo. AOL will discontinue its once-popular Instant Messenger platform on Dec. 15, the company said Friday.

AOL announced Friday that it is discontinuing its pioneering Instant Messenger chat platform after 20 years of service.

An article on AOL’s website posted Friday says AOL Instant Messenger will be discontinued on Dec. 15. In a blog post, a spokesman for AOL’s parent company explained the platform’s demise as the casualty of the evolving way people communicate.

“AIM tapped into new digital technologies and ignited a cultural shift, but the way in which we communicate with each other has profoundly changed,” wrote Michael Albers, vice president of communications at Oath.

The program will function until Dec. 15 After that, users won’t be able to sign in and data will be deleted. AOL says people with an aim.com email address will still be able to use it.

Launched in 1997, AOL Instant Messenger claimed more than 100 million registered users in 2001.

Its popularity as a communication tool waned amid the rise of text messaging, Google Chat and social networking sites.