A smartphone would be near the opposite of that. Having to figure out what app others are using and install, and keep switching between them. With AOL if you wanted to contact someone, it was just IM(AIM), for example.
So more like recent trends of Apple and iOS specifically then? Where Apple first party apps are the go to option and the very thought of having to install a separate app is enough to keep people using the Apple solution. Sure there's an option to install other apps, but increasingly the trend is to use the stock apps for everything. Sure AOL didn't give you a choice, but maybe we'll see that one day with iOS too.
