While they use the same letter in the acronym, most readers can tell when someone means one or the other. The letter H in IMHO can mean two different things: humble or honest. This is why you’ll often see both of them used in online debates and arguments, especially if the topic is open to interpretation, like the subjective quality of a movie, book, or game. In these settings, IMO and IMHO are often used as a disclaimer in an attempt to prevent angry comments. It’s frequently seen on Twitter, where people often engage with a large audience. Now, IMO and IMHO are widely used all over the internet, from message boards and comment sections, to social networking sites. As a result, many phrases, including “in my opinion,” were abbreviated to acronyms.
During the 1980s and ’90s, people had much less screen real-estate and smaller bandwidth, which impacted the language used on platforms like internet relay chat (IRC).
