iChat is a third party AOL Instant Messenger (AOL IM) client, developed by Apple Inc. for the Mac OS X platform and first released with Mac OS X 10.2 on August 24, 2002. Fully endorsed by AOL, it uses their official implementation of the AOL IM protocols, as opposed to other third party AOL IM clients which use reverse engineered versions of the protocols. It bears a brushed metal interface and uses speech bubbles and pictures that some advocates claim personify the online chatting experience. See also: Jens Alfke - the initial developer of iChat