instant messaging
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"Instant messaging", or "IM", refers to electronic communication wherein short text messages are sent with a very short delay (usually 1 second or less) between the sending and the receipt. (This delay is usually called the "lag time".) It most commonly refers to the various IM services such as AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, and ICQ, but can also refer to IRC.
Text-paging on a cell phone (especially if the recipient is equipped to send back a text message in reply) is also sometimes referred to as IM, but the lag time for such messaging is usually rather longer (seconds to minutes).