AOL Integrates AIM with Facebook Chat

[Guest Kiersten Hollars]

AOL Inc. announced a new integration with Facebook that allows millions of AIM and Facebook users to add friends and invite them to chat across both environments. AIM is the first major instant messaging service to take advantage of Facebook Chat’s new API/interface to create a seamless chat experience for users. The new service is already available in beta here: www.aim.com/beta. It further extends AOL’s already successful integration with Facebook Connect across various AOL properties, including the AOL.com homepage, as well as Facebook’s integration with Lifestream, AOL’s social aggregator. This integration makes AIM the first major messaging platform to scale across social communications and provides an easier way for people to instantly communicate with their friends across multiple networks.

 

“This year and beyond is all about putting our focus back on consumers and providing them with the best possible communications experience across the Web,” said Michelle Trainor, Vice President, AIM. “Integrating AIM and Facebook Chat is a great step on the path we’re pursuing to offer universal access through AIM across a variety of communications platforms – and users can look forward to more innovations to come.”

 

Under the new partnership, Facebook Chat will also be tightly integrated with Lifestream, which aggregates updates and feeds from various social networking sites into the AIM environment. Lifestream is the first application with the ability to initiate real-time communication directly from Facebook activities. Lifestream users can go directly to the “IM” hyperlink and start chatting with both their AIM and Facebook friends, instantly.

 

“In today’s online environment, you can’t be competitive without being open and allowing partners, developers and consumers to leverage your technology to help create top-notch products,” said Ethan Beard, Director of the Facebook Developer Network. “We hope other companies will follow AOL’s lead and integrate their communications experiences with ours, now that our new Facebook Chat API makes that possible.”

 

AOL has always been a pioneer in online communications. AIM (http://www.aim.com) was the first consumer instant messaging service when it was launched in 1997. AOL’s ICQ (http://www.icq.com) is one of the most popular international instant messaging services and is available in 22 languages.