You're viewing an article in iPO's historic archive vault. Here, we've preserved the comments and how the site looked along with the article. Use this link to view the article on our current site: AOL Releases AIM Client (Whither iChat?)

News

App Store Spotlight - AOL Releases AIM Client (Whither iChat?)

Thursday, July 10th, 2008 at 2:30 PM - by

AOL released an AIM client for iPhone through the App Store Thursday, bringing true IM to the iPhone (at last), but curiously, Apple has not yet released an iChat-branded client.

According to AOL's description, the AIM client for iPhone 2.0 allows you to send and receive messages over WiFi, EDGE, or 3G networks (for iPhone 3G), and allows you to connect to anyone on AOL, AIM, ICQ, .Mac/iChat, or MobileMe networks.

Users will be able to manage their Buddy Lists, including choosing favorites for quick access on iPhone. Changes to the Buddy List are synced with iChat. You can also use your iPhone's camera to supply buddy icons.

We should also add that AOL made a point of noting that this will work with iPod touch, though only on WiFi networks.

The AIM client is free through the App Store.


Screenshot from AOL's AM client for iPhone

1 comments from the community.

You can post your own below.

+ show options

Your current settings, click to change: Sort Oldest First, Show Guest Posts, Hide Community Stats

A guest said: (hide)

Thu Jul 10, 2008 5:50 pm

Of course nobody mentions whether this supports PUSH, since it's really not as useful if it only works when it is the iPhone's 'in-focus' application. The answer? No, at least not yet. I downloaded and installed it today along with the 'stolen' iPhone 2.0 upgrade and tested it to confirm that you get NO notifications/prompts/alerts etc. unless the client is the running app. Works great when it is, but can't yet replace the crazy-high-priced SMS messaging for iPhone to iPhone use.

Quote this post ↓

Post Your Comments

  Remember Me

Not a member? Register now. You can post comments without logging in, but they'll show up as a "guest" post.


Please enter the word exactly as you see it in the image above. Registered users aren't prompted for this. Having trouble reading the image get a new one.