When did AOL chat rooms shut down?
On December 15, 2020. AOL announced it in November 2020 in a notice to AOL Desktop Gold users.
The notice said AOL had “made the decision to shut down AOL Chat Rooms, which are currently only available to AOL Desktop Gold subscribers.” Subscribers posted it on AOL’s own feedback forum and asked AOL to reverse it; AOL Product Support responded on November 10, 2020, and the rooms closed on schedule (AOL feedback forum).
Why did AOL close its chat rooms?
Because few people still used them. AOL said the rooms had “seen a steady decline in usage over the last several years.”
The decline took two decades. The rooms boomed after 1996, when a $19.95 flat monthly rate replaced hourly charges and let people stay in chat as long as they liked; AOL grew to 17 million subscribers by 1999 (TIME). Then people moved to instant messaging, social networks and phones. In 2010 AOL closed chat inside AIM, saying “usage of AIM Chat has declined significantly.” By March 2017 an Inverse reporter counted about 1,500 people across all of AOL’s public rooms, reachable only through the AOL Desktop app (Inverse).
How did AOL chat rooms work?
You picked a room from a list, entered under your screen name, and talked with whoever was there. A regular room held 23 people.
- People Connection. That was the name of AOL’s chat product, with rooms for interests such as genealogy and strategy games (TIME).
- Full rooms and numbered lobbies. “It only took 23 people to fill a chat room,” TIME wrote. When the main lobby first filled and AOL had to open Lobby 2, early members celebrated.
- Auditoriums. Larger moderated rooms held hundreds or thousands of people for scheduled events, including celebrity guests (Inverse).
- Member rooms. Members could create their own public and private rooms and host events.
- A lot of rooms. By 1997 AOL had 19,000 chat rooms (Inverse).
- The door sound. A creaking door meant a friend on your Buddy List had signed on and was free to chat.
Can I still get into AOL chat rooms?
No. AOL’s chat rooms closed on December 15, 2020, and there’s no official way back in. AIM closed on December 15, 2017.
Volunteers have revived old AIM clients on unofficial servers (Wikipedia), but those aren’t run by AOL.
Is there a modern AOL chat room?
Yes. IRC rooms work the way AOL’s did: named rooms, nicknames, and whoever is there. Arynwood Chat opens one in your browser with no account.
| AOL chat rooms (1990s) | Arynwood Chat (2026) | |
|---|---|---|
| How you got in | The AOL software and a paid account | Any browser, or any IRC app. Free. |
| Your name | Your AOL screen name | Any nickname; register it with NickServ to keep it |
| Rooms | Lobbies, interest rooms, member rooms, auditoriums | #public (the lobby), #general, #arynwood |
| Private messages | IMs | /msg nickname |
| Moderation | AOL staff and volunteer community leaders | Room operators and house rules |
AOL, AIM, Yahoo and MSN are trademarks of their owners. Arynwood is an independent studio and is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.
Sources and how I checked
Dates and figures below each link to where they come from. If you spot an error, email [email protected] and it will be corrected and dated.
- TIME, “AOL’s Longest-Running Employee on the History of AOL Chat Rooms,” July 6, 2012
- Inverse, “Gardening, Sex, and Trolling: Who’s in AOL Chatrooms in 2017,” March 6, 2017
- AOL Desktop Gold feedback forum, “Chat rooms” (shutdown notice quoted by subscribers; AOL Product Support responded November 10, 2020)
- Wikipedia, “AIM (software)”