If you’ve been around the Windows Mobile world for a while, you know that AOL used to put out a client for AIM that was decent but not great, and they neglected to update it.
A few years later, it looks like AOL is getting really serious about AIM on mobile devices. Currently AIM for Windows Mobile (the new version) is in beta, but I’ve found it to be quite stable, and impressive. You can get the download link texted to your phone from AOL, or, if you’re like me and don’t like giving out your phone number to third parties, download the CAB from here.
I think that AOL’s prerogative for the new AIM for Mobile was to make the experience much like the newest version of AIM on the desktop (version 6 and above), and they’ve succeeded. Above we can see a shot of my buddy list. Like AIM desktop, it shows you the current status of each buddy next to their screen name. Plus, when you’re in your buddy list, you can get a view of current IM conversations off to the left. When a new message arrives, you get an indicator over the persons button icon. This all makes it easy to carry on multiple conversations at once. Neat.
Then, during an IM conversation, you can quickly shoot back to your buddy list with the left soft key, or enter the Menu where you can change settings. The settings menu looks very similar to what you’ll find on the desktop and gives you quite a bit of control over the behavior of AIM for mobile - including sound, skin, block, and sign on options.
I give AIM for Windows Mobile 5/5 Shadows - it’s free (for now), and does a fantastic job at bringing AIM to your Shadow.

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