AOL has integrated its instant messaging service with social networking site Facebook, which allows AIM and Facebook users to chat across both environments.
With the integration, AIM said that it is the first instant messaging service to take advantage of Facebook Chat’s new API/interface to create chat experience for users. The new service is currently available in beta.
Michelle Trainor, vice president of AIM, said: “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.”
The new service further extends AOL’s integration with Facebook Connect across various AOL properties, including the AOL.com homepage and Facebook’s integration with AOL’s social aggregator Lifestream.
The company claims that the integration will make AIM the major messaging platform to scale across social communications and provide people to instantly communicate with others across multiple networks.
Under the new partnership, Facebook Chat will also be integrated with Lifestream, which aggregates updates and feeds from various social networking sites into the AIM environment. Lifestream is an application with the ability to initiate real-time communication directly from Facebook activities, enabling users to go directly to the IM hyperlink and start chatting with both their AIM and Facebook users.
Ethan Beard, director of the Facebook Developer Network, said: “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. 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.”
