I recreated AOL Instant Messenger in the browser
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What's under the hood: - Real-time messaging powered by Firebase - Buddy lists, groups & online presence - Away messages with auto-reply (and the classic %n, %d, %t variables) - Buddy icons & editable profiles - Group chat rooms - The actual AIM sounds - Full Windows 98 desktop UI — taskbar, desktop icons, start menu, the works.If you have any suggestions or feedback I would greatly appreciate hearing it. There's still more work to be done with it, but it's been a labor of love.Right now every user that logs on is automatically put on to your Buddy list. I thought this would be a great way to get people to start chatting with each other.The other day I had a conversation with this guy about skateboarding in the 90's, Tony Hawk Pro Skater, and he sent me a photo through an IM of his CCS magazine they occasionally send him.
HN · launched Jun 8, 2026 · 5 upvotes (top 87%) · 0 views
Niche: novelty and humor web apps · 188 launches, 8 in the last 7 days ▼ -53% · Explore this niche →
Category and tags
- Horizontal
- Communication
- B2C
- Not AI
- Hobby / open-source project
Visit website ↗ Source listing ↗
More like this: all 188 launches in novelty and humor web apps →
Could you build this?
Yes The creator explicitly built this with Firebase for real-time messaging and auth alongside custom CSS for the retro Win98/AIM desktop aesthetic, which LLMs excel at generating.
Discussion
2 comments analyzed.
Concerns raised: Start menu dropdown items lack significance/purpose, Start menu has limited utility
Feature requests: Draggable icons
Competitors
Other products that read as similar to this one : 328 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.
Attention rank: #302 of 329 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).
Launched 222 days after the earliest competitor.
- Die With Me · hn · 2026-09-17 · 11 upvotes · similarity 0.59
- 500,000+ AOL Instant Messenger Buddy Icons All at Once · hn · 2026-08-28 · 8 upvotes · similarity 0.57
- We built ChatterBooth, an anonymous app to talk and chat freely · hn · 2025-11-19 · 12 upvotes · similarity 0.48
- Spaces ChatApp · ph · 2026-09-22 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.47
- connect-chat · ph · 2026-10-23 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.46
- Geofenced chat communities anyone can create · hn · 2025-11-09 · 57 upvotes · similarity 0.45
- Pinghug · ph · 2026-09-17 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.45
- Bored People Chat · hn · 2026-06-30 · 6 upvotes · similarity 0.44
The niche, labels, vibe code rating and competitor comparison on this page are analysis by Nicheloom. If you use them, please credit nicheloom.com. How you may use our data.