Full AIM Connectivity Coming to AOL Mail

With its upgrade to Cayman complete, AOL is focusing on adding features to its web e-mail client that will help it to catch up and surpass its competitors in features.

The first of the new features is full integration with its AIM messaging product, something the first iteration of Cayman began, but only did so in a rudimentary form.

With this update, the AIM functionality acts more like its desktop counterpart, with the user's buddy list appearing as a tab in the right-hand column of the client. When clicking a contact, an IM window pops up, and like the desktop client, conversations become tabbed after more than one session is started.

AOL told BetaNews that adding in full integration allows users to use their AIM accounts anywhere within a familiar interface. It also furthers the company's move to the web as a platform following its relaunch as a free service last year.

The new client is expected to be available as a beta by the end of this month, vice president of AOL Mail Roy Ben-Yoseph told BetaNews in an interview. AOL's beta process will be open to anyone, unlike Microsoft's method, which required accounts to be ported to the new interface.

Ben-Yoseph added that AIM integration was only the beginning for Cayman. The company is working on features such as conversations that can be transitioned from IM to e-mail and vice versa, saving IM sessions into folders on the mail client, among others.

A full release of the new AOL Mail with the added features is slated for the end of the summer.