For years, users took advantage of instant messaging (IM) to send a short message to another user outside email or to have a text-based real-time chat. There is no cost for instant messaging, and the user with whom one was chatting could reside in the next cubicle or across the globe. Today, many companies still rely on instant messaging to provide text-based technical support as well as internal company messaging.
Over time, instant-messaging tools have expanded to support file sharing and even face-to-face video. FIGURE 7-3 shows a video-based instant-messaging session. Today, most web-conferencing tools such as Zoom, Teams, and Skype provide chat-message and video capabilities.
FIGURE 7-3 Instant-messaging tools have grown from a text-based medium for message exchange to support audio and video streaming.
