MSN Messenger was Microsoft's dominant instant messaging client in the early 2000s, and its short popup chimes became the soundtrack of after-school chatting for millions of users. The 2002 to 2005 era captures the classic interface before the service was rebranded as Windows Live Messenger in 2005 and eventually shut down in 2013. As early internet nostalgia surged online, these tiny notification sounds found a second life in memes and edits, often compared with other alert chimes like the Discord notification and the classic ding sound effect that followed them.