AIM-style chat maker
Build a late-1990s instant-message window with coloured screen names and no bubbles. Open the sample, rewrite the lines and export an image for a throwback video or design.
Try it: start from this sample
What the AIM-style window reproduces
The AIM-style look is a desktop instant-message window from the late 1990s. It has a blue title bar, a menu row, a white conversation box and, below it, a small formatting row with letters for bold, italic and underline plus a smiley. There are no speech bubbles at all. Instead every line starts with a screen name and a time, followed by the text. Your name is shown in red and the other person in blue, so the eye follows who is talking by colour alone.
Setting up the sample
Open the sample and replace the two screen names first. Period screen names are one word with numbers or odd capitals, such as SkaKid99, and they carry most of the era feeling. Keep them invented and never reuse a name that belongs to a real person. Rewrite the four lines in lowercase with the odd text smiley. Turn on the typing line if you want a frame where the other person is mid-sentence. Online status can show a green dot for your contact, which helps a viewer who has never seen this kind of window.
Stories that suit this window
Pick a moment the era actually had: sharing a phone line, planning a mixtape, waiting for a page to load, signing off before a parent noticed. Our sample squeezes a twenty minute deadline into four lines, which gives the viewer a reason to keep reading. Light mode matches the period. Dark mode is available if your video sits on a dark background.
Plan and honesty
This look is on the Standard plan. The Free plan loads the first four messages of any sample and exports a PNG with a visible ChatsRat watermark, and video needs Creator. ChatsRat is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by the original service, which has ended or changed. The window is original artwork drawn in a general style, with no logos, mascots or sounds.
Tips
- Type in lowercase with occasional abbreviations like brb and ttyl, the way the period did.
- Give each screen name one memorable detail so viewers can tell the two apart at a glance.
- Keep every line under about twelve words; the transcript box is wide but not tall.
- Put a real constraint in the first line, such as a shared phone line, to create tension.
- Label throwback videos as a simulated conversation if people could mistake it for an archive.
Questions
Is the AIM-style look free?
The look is on the Standard plan. The Free plan can still open any sample, loads its first four messages and exports a PNG with a visible ChatsRat watermark. The pricing page lists the exact limits.
Does it copy the original program?
No. ChatsRat draws its own window in a similar general style and uses the name only to describe the kind of layout. The original service has ended or changed, and we are not affiliated with it.
Are there speech bubbles?
No. Each line reads as a screen name, a time and the text, with your name in red and theirs in blue. That plain transcript is the main thing that makes the window look of its era.
Can I add a typing indicator?
Yes. The look supports a typing line, and it can show an online status for contacts. It does not draw read receipts or reactions, because windows of that period had neither.
Can I turn it into a video?
Video export needs the Creator plan. On Standard you can export still images, which work well for thumbnails, slides and a carousel of screenshots.
Use it for simulated, labelled content. ChatsRat makes mock-ups and fictional conversations for creators, designers and teachers. Do not use it to pass off a made-up conversation as a real one, to impersonate a real person, or as proof of anything. See the Acceptable Use policy.
About the watermark. Exports on the Free plan carry a visible ChatsRat watermark, and every export carries an invisible mark that the verify page can read. Plans list what changes on paid plans.
ChatsRat is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by any messaging app. App names on this page describe a style only.