AIM 6.9

AIM stands for AOL Instant Messenger. The AOL part, is obviously America Online, the internet services and media company from the US that is run by Time Warner. The instant messaging part (IM) means that you can use the software to communicate with your AIM contacts in real-time. You log into your AIM account, select a contact, type a message and hit send – that contact receives your message in real-time, and should he decide to reply, you will get the reply in real-time as well.

Anyone can get AIM and use it, and I base that statement on two facts. Fact number one: AIM will not cost you a think as long as you go for free, ad-supported version. Fact number two: you can use AIM on your Windows-powered PC, on you Mac, on Linux and even on your iPhone or Windows Mobile smartphone. An IM client that can be accessed free of charge and can be used on pretty much any platform out there? Now that’s a recipe for success. As a matter of fact, AIM users made up more than half of the messaging market in North America, according to statistic from 2006.

In recent times AIM may have lost some ground to the competition, but the one thing that Skype for example does not have is pioneering spirit. Sure, every other IM client out there features voice, video and desktop-to-mobile messaging nowadays, but the first one to implement these features was AIM. Besides these features, AIM also comes with space for 500 friends in the contacts list, a file transfer feature, and the option to organize chat windows and status messages with ease.

I want to backup to the file transfer feature for a minute. Basically it means that you can send your friends any file you want, as long as it does not exceed a maximum size limit, which by the way, is larger than most IM clients out there can offer.

Moving on, AIM also comes with its own e-mail service, just like Yahoo! Messenger comes with Yahoo! Mail. But setting up an AOL email account could prove bothersome for some. On the upside, there is an “unsend” function that will come in handy when you realize you mistakenly sent an email to someone other the person you wanted to send it to.

There is one other thing that might get AIM users a bit miffed: the IM client comes with a video conferencing option, but accessing this option is not exactly a piece of cake – especially for the novice user. Just getting to start a video conference means you have to go through the menus and waste time.

Pros
The size limit for the file transfer is large, very large
The “unsend” option of the email client is a great addition

Cons
Accessing the video conference option can prove to be a hassle
Not much different from most IM clients out there

AIM has been reviewed by George Norman on 23 Sep 2009. Based on the user interface, features and complexity, Findmysoft has rated AIM 5 out of 5 stars, naming it Essential