LISTSERV was the first email software for group use. It was released in 1986. The software allowed users to send one email at a time to certain people. GNU Mailman (1998), Sympa (1997), and Lyris ListManager (1997) were other affiliated programs that made an appearance in later years.

Emails were manually sent before the introduction of the "LISTSERV" group email software. This is very slow and time-consuming. The group email software was available as freeware from 86 to 1993. If you want to get more information then you can visit www.knowledgemill.com/mail-manager/

It is now a commercial product of L-Soft, which was founded in 1994 by Eric Thomas, the author of LISTSERV. Although a free version is available, it is restricted to 500 subscribers.

While studying in Paris, Erich Thomas invents the first group email software. This software was easy to use and did not require human administration. It could send one email to all subscribers with the put-in templates, questions, and advertisements, in less than a minute. LISTSERV introduced the spam filter in 1995 and the double opt-in in 1993.

LISTSERV was the first email program that allowed group communication. It was registered with both the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the PRV (Swedish Patent and Registration Office).