AOL's AIM adds lifestream

Includes Facebook and Twitter integration

7 July 2009 10:43 GMT / By Duncan Geere

We don't hear a lot from AOL's instant messenger client, AIM, these days. Once upon a time it was the platform of choice, with MSN Messenger, for chatting to your friends, but that's been superseded by Facebook and Twitter.

Well, AOL's fighting back. It's released beta versions of new AIM clients, and a new website that includes a lifestream - a list of what all your friends have been up to recently in inverse chronological order.

That includes Facebook updates, Twitter statuses, AIM status updates, YouTube videos, Delicious links, and more services are promised for the future. You can "like" a particular update, in the same way you can on Facebook.

Of course, by dragging it into AIM, you're sticking your data into a walled garden that you can't get out of yet. AOL is happy to take your data, but at the time of writing, there's no way to export your AIM statuses to Twitter or Facebook. We hope that comes soon.

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