RSSAOL Launches Free AIM Pro Client
By Nate Mook | Published July 19, 2006, 5:01 AM
After one month in testing, AOL on Wednesday dropped the beta moniker from its corporate instant messaging client, officially launching AIM Pro. The new client was jointly designed with WebEx and is targeting business users with collaboration features powered by the company.
AOL hopes to ride the growing wave of instant messaging in the enterprise with AIM Pro. The company cites a recent survey by The Radicati Group that says IM has become a key collaboration tool for 135 million workers, with usage expected to soar to over 477 million by 2009.
On the outside, AIM Pro sports a more streamlined user interface and removes the advertising found in AOL's consumer client. AIM Pro "Modules" reside in the bottom of the application, offering tools such as people search through ZoomInfo, headlines from the Wall Street Journal and even business-oriented podcasts.
But AIM Pro's biggest improvements have been made under the hood, Brian Curry, vice president of Business Services at AOL, told BetaNews. Security has been bolstered with SSL encryption when sending messages between two AIM Pro users. AOL is also offering an automatic virus scanning service, which routes file transfers through the company's network.
AOL is now supporting e-mail addresses as screen names in AIM Pro, a feature requested by business customers. Users can validate their e-mail address and use it in lieu of picking an AOL username.
Audio and video conferencing has also been improved from the standard AIM client using technology from WebEx's MediaTone network. Up to 10 AIM Pro users can participate in a voice chat, although video will be limited to two individuals. AOL expects to introduce 4-way video conferencing in the near future.
WebEx is additionally providing its desktop sharing functionality within AIM Pro. Users can let one other person see their Windows desktop and collaborate with them on projects or give a demonstration. Multi-party desktop sharing will also be delivered as a premium service at a later date, Curry said.
Such collaboration or other meetings can be scheduled directly from AIM Pro's built-in calendar tab. Curry said calendar integration with Outlook was added as "a nice to have feature," but users have found it to be one of the new client's most important additions.
AIM Pro is built atop AOL's new Triton platform under its Open AIM initiative. "WebEx did all the principal client development," Curry explained. "They are the ones that really built this using our SDK."
WebEx is currently beta testing a Business Edition version of AIM Pro that it will offer to customers for a fee. That release includes an administrator toolkit for disabling features, a whitelist to specify certain groups of users that can be messaged, and logging for compliance purposes that will be hosted by WebEx.
AIM Pro will be available Wednesday as a free download from AOL's Web site. The software will connect with AIM, ICQ and Apple iChat users, as well as business-oriented IM clients through the AIM Clearinghouse service.
Although AIM Pro was designed with business users in mind, the company now expects individual consumers to make use of it as well. "One of the things we found out during the course of the beta is that the product really has a broad appeal," said Curry.
"Ultimately, AOL still has nothing actually worth while."
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For you perhaps.
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|The only real part of AIM that was ever worth it was it's ability to handle larger file sizes in file transfers. If AIM pro is going to mean no advertising, that's great. Although I don't see why the ability to use an email address for an AIM id is a good thing. To use email addresses this way is just asking for problems. Ultimately, AOL still has nothing actually worth while.
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|You:
If AIM pro is going to mean no advertising, that's great.
Article:
On the outside, AIM Pro sports a more streamlined user interface and removes the advertising found in AOL's consumer client.
And apparently, you missed the parts about encryption, virus scanning for file transfers, enhanced audio/video conferencing, and desktop sharing completely.
RTFA
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|Well I got XP back and installed this. I gotta say you are right. This thing is great. Never thought I'd be saying this about something from AOL but I'm actually impressed.
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|i like this a lot.
but is there ANY way to enter a profile? thats the only thing i have against it :[
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|Anyone else having trouble registering their e-mail address as their screen name?
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|Restart AIM Pro, close your browser, clear the cache and then click on "get a screen name." You can now register for a domain style screen name.
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|THANK YOU.
I feel absolutely retarded for not trying that to begin with. Sometimes, I need to be reminded of the simplest things.
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|The only problem I have with this or Triton is no Vista compatibility. So I am sunjected to using Gaim (go figure it works) tot alk to people on AIM.
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|Ummm... Vista is still in Beta. You can't blame a product for not supporting another company's *beta* software. Gaim is awesome, though. That's all you need anyway. =)
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|I would think they would be making some kind of effort though since it's only another 6 months til vista launches. maybe i'm expecting too much of them.
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|I dunno. You make a good point. Still though... Even after Vista's released, it's going to take a while before a lot of AOL users are running it.
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|There actually is a way to make AIM Pro work on Vista! Install the client with WinXP compatibility mode turned on. Right-click the installer in file explorer before you run it and, select properties, click on the compatibility tab. You need to restart Vista after the install for some reason. After the restart, the client seems to be working just fine...
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|I have already tried that. I got the thing to install which is more than I can say for Triton. The problem is, after installation, everytime I tried to run it the darn thing would crash. Tried running in compatibility mode, no use, it still crashed.
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|What's this? An AOL program I actually like?
I think I need a minute...
*deep breath*
Ok, I think I'm alright. I can't believe how good this sounds. Installing now...
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|I think AIM pro is great, but I still like old version 5.9x. If they can speed up the login time, it would be great.
Since this is release, they really really should drop Triton, it's a POS software.
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|The AdHack version of Triton is actually nice.
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|I'll hand AOL credit, a corporate version of AIM was a good idea. The bad part is that it's still AIM.
Man, the IM wars need a kick in the pants...
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|not bad for an aol program :D
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|The only reason it's any good is that AOL didn't design it... WebEx did.
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|"The new client was jointly designed with WebEx"
as in AOL and WebEx....not one or the other.
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|iChat support, good!
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