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What is Instant Messaging?
Home » Website Services » Instant Messaging » What is Instant Messaging?Instant messaging is a way to communicate over the internet in real-time. No longer do you need to wait on an important email or wonder if your email was ever received. Most instant messaging programs have a contact list, commonly referred to as a “buddy list” where you can enter in the user ids of people you would like to communicate with. When you are online and signed into the instant messaging software, it will list the other people in your contact list that are also online or “available”. If someone starts the conversation first, a box will appear on the screen and show the contact’s message and also provide a text box where you can type in a reply. (To begin a conversation yourself, you simply click on the contact’s name.) Your conversation is “recorded” in the main text box, so you can easily read back over it if you lose your train of thought. This is the basic way instant messaging is used although there are many other convenient features will we discuss in a moment.
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