Page "Instant messaging" Paragraph 10

In the latter half of the 1980s and into the early 1990s, the Quantum Link online service for Commodore 64 computers offered user-to-user messages between concurrently connected customers, which they called " On-Line Messages " ( or OLM for short ), and later " FlashMail.

" ( Quantum Link later became America Online and made AOL Instant Messenger ( AIM ), discussed later ).

While the Quantum Link service ran on a Commodore 64, using only the Commodore's PETSCII text-graphics, the screen was visually divided into sections and OLMs would appear as a yellow bar saying " Message From :" and the name of the sender along with the message across the top of whatever the user was already doing, and presented a list of options for responding.

As such, it could be considered a type of graphical user interface ( GUI ), albeit much more primitive than the later Unix, Windows and Macintosh based GUI IM software.

OLMs were what Q-Link called " Plus Services " meaning they charged an extra per-minute fee on top of the monthly Q-Link access costs.