AOL Beta Central

System Requirements

• Windows: 2K or higher, optimized for Windows XP, Vista and 7
• Internet Explorer 6®, optimized for Internet Explorer® 7+
• 128MB RAM and 512MB for Enhanced IM functionality
• Macromedia Flash
• Microphone/speaker or headset for Talk functionality
• Broadband recommended for Live Video Chat

Version History

• Beta 1: 7.1.2.18 (current)

The AIM team is proud to release AIM 7.1 Beta 1 to the AIM beta community. AIM 7.1 adds the following features on top of the AIM 7 experience:

• Ability to choose which services to push your AIM status. If you configure AIM to know your facebook or twitter accounts in lifestream, you will see icons above the status input area when you click to change your status. These icons will let you toggle on and off the ability to post your status back to facebook or twitter. This way, when you are saying something you want everyone to know, you can blast it out to your facebook or twitter!
• Windows 7 improvements. If you are a Windows 7 user, you should notice that we are shipping nicer application icons that work well with the new Windows 7 taskbar. These icons will also change when you are away or idle, so you can see your state right in the taskbar. Because AIM is so awesome, you should take the time to right click and pin AIM to the taskbar for easy access. Just right click on the AIM icon while it is running and click "Pin this program to taskbar".
• Improved upgrade mechanism. One recurring theme we've heard from both beta testers and regular AIM users is that they aren't thrilled by AIM's current upgrade mechanism. People don't like having to deal with upgrades and want it to be simpler to keep the software up to date. So we're working on that. AIM 7.1 introduces a streamlined upgrade mechanism that will download new versions in the background when they are ready and install them seamlessly on next launch. We'll test out this upgrade mechanism during the beta period and really want to hear about any issues testers run into.
• A new look to notification "toasters" that appear in the lower right of your screen. Some people know them as "notifications", but in the world of AIM, we call those little windows that pop up in the lower right "toasters". They look like toast popping up, right? Anyway, we realized that they were a little tired looking, so we gave them a fresh look. We hope you like them. If you don't want these notifications, you can always go to settings->notifcations and turn them off.
• Mail notifications now have subject and sender. If you use AOL or AIM mail, you'll get new mail notifications. If you get mail when you are online, instead of getting a notifications saying something like "you have 2 messages" the notification will now will include the subject line and sender of the message. It will also click directly to that message. We hope you AIM and AOL mail users enjoy this improvement.
• Add button at top of buddy list. We've made it easier to get to the "add buddy" functionality.