(Open System for CommunicAtion in Realtime) AOL's internal project name for AOL Instant Messenger (AIM). The core functions of OSCAR, known as the Basic OSCAR Services (BOS), include Login/Logoff, Locate (find out about other AIM users), Instant Message (send message) and Buddy List management. In 1998, AOL introduced TOC, a subset of OSCAR released under the GNU license, which has been used to write AIM clients for Linux and other operating systems. See FLAP.