When were email and IM invented?

Email and IM is actually as old as the internet itself. Originally, scientists sent messages from one computer to another. This was in the 1970's. They have both evolved quite a bit since then.

I started using email, electronic mail as it was called around 1982 though it was around before then, but the modem was outside of the computer and was around 2ft wide and heavy. I had a word processing bureau and used to advertise electronic mail is here, but apart from the American companies opening up UK offices along the M4 corridor no one else at that time had heard of or needed to use it.