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A snapshot summary
AIM, also known as AOL Messenger is the most popular instant messenger application in the USA. Outside America it's much less popular. AIM refers to their icons as 'smileys' so we will too. The free AIM smileys are very disappointing. Just take a look at the AIM Smiley Dictionary and you'll see what we mean. The designs are old fashioned and unoriginal, the image quality and the range of smileys to choose from is quite limited. If you see a slight flicker, that's apparently animation. Why do so many people use it?
 
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Personalization features
In our experience AIM has to be one of the most unintuitive hard to navigate applications on the planet. Try changing your avatar (or buddy icon in 'AIM speak') to make it your own custom one. Nightmare. Want to add your own emoticons? Tough luck. AIM won't let you. You can only add AIM smileys designed by AIM.
You can get the full spec on AIM 6.1 here, here's a briefer version:
- AIM Expressions: different themes to personalize AIM e.g. Spiderman, M&Ms and others sponsored by advertisers.
- Away messages: AIM and ICQ were the first instant messenger programs where people used away messages extensively. There are thousands of custom away messasges available on lots of different sites on the web.
- Color schemes: change the color scheme of your AIM window
- 'Wallmations': a new feature for animated wallpapers. Themes include Valentines day, Mardi Gras etc
AIM Smileys screenshot
As you can see from the screenshot below the free AIM emoticons are very average
Download link: If want to download AOL Messenger you can do so here. The most popular thing about AIM seems to be the away messages. Type 'away messages' into Google search and you'll see 'about 60,300,000' results!
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