Editing AIM (software) (section)

==Protocol==
The standard protocol that AIM clients used to communicate is called [[OSCAR protocol|Open System for CommunicAtion in Realtime]] (OSCAR). Most AOL-produced versions of AIM and popular third party AIM clients use this protocol. However, AOL also created a simpler protocol called [[TOC protocol|TOC]] that lacks many of OSCAR's features, but was sometimes used for clients that only require basic chat functionality. The TOC/TOC2 protocol specifications were made available by AOL, while OSCAR is a closed protocol that third parties had to reverse-engineer.

In January 2008, AOL introduced experimental [[XMPP|Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol]] (XMPP) support for AIM,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://florianjensen.com/2008/01/17/aol-adopting-xmpp-aka-jabber/|title=AOL adopting XMPP aka Jabber|date=2008-01-17|access-date=2008-01-17|author=Florian Jensen|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080120143857/http://florianjensen.com/2008/01/17/aol-adopting-xmpp-aka-jabber/|archive-date=January 20, 2008|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}}</ref> allowing AIM users to communicate using the standardized, open-source XMPP. However, in March 2008, this service was discontinued.<ref>{{Cite web|title=XMPP ~ Computer Science ~ 3073 ~ p2k.unhamzah.ac.id|url=http://p2k.unhamzah.ac.id/IT/en/3073-2970/XMPP_2601_p2k-unhamzah.html|access-date=2021-09-27|website=p2k.unhamzah.ac.id|archive-date=September 27, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210927215253/http://p2k.unhamzah.ac.id/IT/en/3073-2970/XMPP_2601_p2k-unhamzah.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In May 2011, AOL started offering limited XMPP support.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aim.com/xmpp |title=AOL XMPP Gateway |date=2011-05-14 |access-date=2011-05-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110522092331/http://www.aim.com/xmpp |archive-date=May 22, 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref> On March 1, 2017, AOL announced (via XMPP-login-time messages<ref>{{cite web|url=https://pidgin.im/pipermail/support/2017-March/029513.html|title=Fwd: AOL|date=2017-03-01|access-date=March 1, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170302030248/https://pidgin.im/pipermail/support/2017-March/029513.html|archive-date=March 2, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>) that the AOL XMPP gateway would be desupported, effective March 28, 2017.