Synchronous conferencing in the context of "Online chat"

Online chat is any direct text-, audio- or video-based (webcams), one-on-one or one-to-many (group) chat (formally also known as synchronous conferencing), using tools such as instant messengers, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), talkers and possibly MUDs or other online games. Online chat includes web-based applications that allow communication – often directly addressed, but anonymous between users in a multi-user environment. Web conferencing is a more specific online service, that is often sold as a service, hosted on a web server controlled by the vendor. Online chat may address point-to-point communications as well as multicast communications from one sender to multiple receivers and voice and video chat, or may be a feature of a web conferencing service.

Online chat in a narrower sense is any kind of communication over the Internet that offers a real-time transmission of text messages from sender to receiver. Chat messages are generally short in order to enable other participants to respond quickly. Thereby, a feeling similar to a spoken conversation is created, which distinguishes chatting from other text-based online communication forms such as Internet forums and email. The expression online chat comes from the word chat which means "informal conversation".

A chat room, chatroom, or group chat (GC), is an online technology of synchronous conferencing, and occasionally even asynchronous conferencing. Chat rooms comprise technology ranging from real-time online chat and online interaction with strangers (e.g., online forums) to fully immersive graphical social environments. The ability to converse with multiple people in the same conversation differentiates chat rooms from instant messaging programs.

The first chat system was developed by Murray Turoff and for its first by the US government in 1971. Talkomatic, the first public online chat system, was created in 1973 on the PLATO System. Chat rooms gained mainstream popularity with AOL, and many peer-to-peer clients were created to host chat rooms. Further innovations include visual chat rooms, which add graphics to the chat experience.

A bulletin board system (BBS), also called a computer bulletin board service (CBBS), is a computer server running software that allows users to connect to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, the user performs functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging messages with other users through public message boards and sometimes via direct chatting. In the early 1980s, message networks such as FidoNet were developed to provide services such as NetMail, which is similar to internet-based email.

Many BBSes also offered online games in which users could compete with each other. BBSes with multiple phone lines often provided chat rooms, allowing users to interact with each other. Bulletin board systems were in many ways a precursor to the modern form of the World Wide Web, social networks, and other aspects of the Internet. Low-cost, high-performance asynchronous modems drove the use of online services and BBSes through the early 1990s. InfoWorld estimated that there were 60,000 BBSes serving 17 million users in the United States alone in 1994, a collective market much larger than major online services such as CompuServe.

Asynchronous conferencing or asynchronous computer-mediated communication (asynchronous CMC) is the formal term used in science, in particular in computer-mediated communication, collaboration and learning, to describe technologies where there is a delay in interaction between contributors. It is used in contrast to synchronous conferencing, which refers to various "chat" systems in which users communicate simultaneously in "real time".
Especially in computer-mediated communication, it is emerging as a tool that can create opportunities for collaboration and support the inquiry process. In this form of communication, face-to-face conversation is not required, and the conversation can last for a long time. It has mostly been useful for online discussions and idea sharing which can be used for learning purpose or for solving problems over geographically diverse work-field.