CNET editors’ review

Reviewed by: Seth Rosenblatt on May 27, 2009

AOL continues its push to stay relevant with the latest upgrade to its chat program. In version 6.0, we saw the incorporation of tools that were mostly old hat to other chatware. This time around we get Twitter support, two built-in plug-ins, expanded mobile messaging, an easier way to switch skins, and a new Status message feature.

The two plug-ins are the biggest upgrades, with mixed results. Neither the QQ Games nor the AIM Tunes plug-ins worked in Vista, although they were fine on an XP machine. They both allow full control from the Buddy window, which is especially useful for AIM Tunes and the integrated streaming XM Radio. The TXT Message mode was far more stable, functioning well regardless of OS. As of this writing, though, the AIM Short Code for accessing your Buddy list and other AIM chat features via SMS has not yet been rolled out.

The other features–Plaxo address book, telephony and a free local “dummy” number with free voice mail–are nice touches, but nothing that blasts AIM ahead of the pack. The buddy window has been largely unchanged, managing links to other services, extra features, and of course, ads. Whether these services can entice new users as well as those who have drifted to multi-chatware supporting apps remains to be seen.

Publisher’s description

AIM connects you with your friends and family instantly. The new Lifestream feature lets you stay on top of what your AIM buddies are doing by allowing you to add a variety of accounts such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. With AIM, you can follow your friends, post photos and status messages to stay connected in real time. With a great new look and feel, it’s faster and lighter than ever. AIM is available on Windows and Mac, your favorite mobile phones like iPhone and Windows mobile, or try it out on the web using AIM Express. What’s new with the latest AIM release: AIM Lifestream–see what your buddies are doing on AIM, facebook, twitter, flickr, delicious, digg, and youtube with the ability to leave comments back to facebook and @reply to twitter; Post your AIM status to facebook and twitter–makes it easy to keep buddies updated from one place; Improved performance–faster, better, stronger; More efficient–the AIM 7 for Windows installer is under 8 MB down from 14 MB in AIM 6.9; New look and feel–back to basics, making it easy to IM without a lot of clutter; Inclusion of photos in status; Improved customization–big buddy icons, client skins; Easily send mobile TXT messages to phones for free.