Push It!
Posted Jun 23rd 2009 2:41AM by Edwin Aoki
After long anticipation, I'm very pleased to announce that AIM and AIM (Free Edition), both with push notifications, are now available in the App Store. We've been waiting since the iPhone came out to be able to bring you an instant messaging app that works the way you expect, with notifications when you're doing something else like web surfing or listening to AOL Radio, and thanks to Apple's Push Notification framework, we finally can. While we were in there, we took the opportunity to tweak a few things as well. We fixed a couple of compatibility issues with iPhone OS 3.0, improved the speed and stability by making a number of internal changes in the app, and tweaked the fonts a little bit so that we could get more of your conversation on screen, as many had asked. For customers of the paid edition of AIM, we've also added one of your most requested features - support for landscape mode in just about every screen. We'll be continuing to improve our landscape support, and making the feature available in the Free Edition in a future release, but rest assured we're listening to all of your feedback, so please keep it coming. I know a number of you have been frustrated by the wait, especially those of you who've had issues since upgrading to OS 3.0. To all of you, we're sorry. As you know, like all other developers, our apps go through an approval process which, with all of the great apps coming for OS 3.0, took a little longer than anyone would have wanted. But now it's here, and we're thrilled to be able to bring it to you. Future postings will go over some more tips on how to use push, including the difference between Push Notifications and SMS notifications (and when you might want to use one vs. the other), what the "24 hour" sign in means, and how to control the alerts and vibrations you get with push technology. We'll also dive a little deeper into some of AIM's other features, like SMS text integration and location sharing. But for now, enjoy the update. If you're not seeing it in iTunes on your desktop, try quitting and restarting the app. (Note that deleting AIM on the iPhone and reinstalling, as some have suggested, may delete your past conversation state).
Resources
Most Commented Posts
Most Recent Comments
Blogroll
AOL iPhone Web Apps
About The Team
Hi. I'm Edwin Aoki, and I'm a Technology Fellow at AOL. Contrary to popular belief (and wishful thinking) this doesn't mean I get to sit around and be fed grapes while thinking Deep Thoughts. In fact, I can't remember the last time I had any Deep Thoughts, let alone the last time anyone fed me grapes. But I'm thrilled to be part of the iPhone development effort at AOL, and I hope to provide some perspective on what it is we do here, why we do it, and to hear your thoughts on how we can do it better. You can follow my updates @edwinaoki.
Hi, I'm Christina Wick, Technical Director for the AOL Mac team. My team is responsible for the development and testing of all the desktop Mac applications as well as a bunch of iPhone apps including AIM, AOL Radio, SHOUTcast, touchTXT, and many more. I took over managing the Mac team a little over two years ago when AOL decided to "Get Back on the Mac." Since then, we have released numerous desktop products and iPhone apps. We look forward to bringing more exciting apps to the Mac community. I'm on Twitter, if you would like to follow me - @ChristinaWick.
My name is Lee Givens and I'm the Product Lead for the Mac products at AOL and you can find me on the Mac@AOL blog too. When I'm not at the office, I'm probably in line at the local Apple Store whenever a new iPhone is released (actually, when anything from Apple is released :) I've been at AOL since 2007 and lead product management for Mac and iPhone apps. During my spare time, I collect vintage Macs (and Apple IIs) and root for the Univ. of Maryland Terps. If you would like to follow me, I'm at @MacGivens.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
1. Congrats to push. Works like a charme. But I am missing a feature which would let me specify when I want to receive push, e.g. if I am logged in at a computer, I would not like to receive push notifications (at the moment, if someone sends me messages to my desktop client, the phone constantly vibrates which is getting on my nerves).
Posted at 3:42AM on Jun 23rd 2009 by Simon
2. I love the update to the free edition, comes in handy. I was just wondering if there would ever be an update that allows group chats?
Posted at 6:46AM on Jun 23rd 2009 by Marcus
3. Congrats!!!
Posted at 7:08AM on Jun 23rd 2009 by Michaela
4. @Simon
Imagine you go out and you forget left your AIM client connected at home. If the program worked as you suggest, all of a sudden IMs would not be pushed to your iPhone because you're also signed in at your computer. I figure that's why they didn't add that feature. It would be particularly confusing for novice users to figure out why push stopped working.
Posted at 2:07PM on Jun 23rd 2009 by Antonio
5. Hello. For some reason I can't get Push to work. As I exit AIM (and I set it to keep me logged in for 1 hour) I am still online. When I send myself a message from another AIM user on another computer nothing happens on my iPhone. I have to visit the AIM app to see the message. What am I doing wrong? iPhone 2G, all Push-notifications are switched on. Push does work with MobileMe. I checked all settings multiple times: the settings do not seem to be the problem. Carrier: T-Mobile, The Netherlands. Any suggestions?
Posted at 4:38PM on Jun 23rd 2009 by Ernst Mulder
6. I can't even get into the app I press the icon the bars for the buddy list and I go back to my home screen. Help me please!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!???!?!?!?!?!?!?!
Posted at 9:46PM on Jun 23rd 2009 by Chad Ehnis
7. No matter the excuse, receiving simultaneous IMs on the phone and desktop client is ridiculous. And having to continually log in and out on the iPhone whenever using a desktop client really reduces the usefulness and convenience of the app. The app should allow desktop clients to take precedence when open, and only push IMs to the iphone with the desktop client is offline, away or idle. Hopefully someone will address this issue soon.
For now, there is this workaround, which is imperfect:
On the iPhone AIM app, set your status to AWAY, while also utilizing the 24-hour sign off.
When you open a desktop client, others will view you as being available, and messages will NOT get pushed to the iPhone. After closing the desktop client, others will view you as AWAY, but any messages received WILL get pushed to the iPhone. The drawback is that people will view you as AWAY even when you're available by iPhone.
The app is SO close to working right. Any insights from the AOL team?
Posted at 10:42AM on Jun 24th 2009 by Suni Sidhu
8. Thank you for the addition of Push Notification, it finally makes AIM on the iPhone a useful app. The next thing I'd like to see is better integration with Contacts, in particular the ability to display real names (or nicknames) instead of the users AIM screenname. I'm so used to this ability in iChat that when I'm using AIM on my iPhone I have to think a moment to realize who exactly I'm IMing with.
Posted at 2:03PM on Jun 24th 2009 by Brian
9. Concerning my previous post: "For some reason I can't get Push to work". No need to look into this because the simple reason is that push doesn't work with 2G iPhones that were jailbreaked to activate them.
Posted at 2:10PM on Jun 24th 2009 by pooh
10. I like the new update, although I'm not sure if you guys are aware of it but the AIM icon randomly gets corrupted and the only fix I've found is removing and reinstalling the app via an iTunes sync. I can reproduce by rebooting the phone.
Posted at 2:18PM on Jun 24th 2009 by Bschultz
11. The new free client is pretty nice, but as others have mentioned, there are still several bugs. For example, it behaves unpredictably when assigning a nickname to a buddy. Sometimes it will apply the changes immediately, sometimes not. There are also usability issues with adding buddies, but I won't spend time describing that here. I would really like to be able to receive push notifications which vibrate, but which don't produce sound. I haven't found a way to do that, at least not yet. And maybe an option to use the built in Message sounds instead of the Aol sound effects would be nice.
Posted at 2:51PM on Jun 24th 2009 by Erik Mendoza
12. The Free edition works perfect for me. The push Works excellent. I can see nicknames I set for people. My only wish is that I would be able to do group chats.
Posted at 7:36PM on Jun 24th 2009 by Marcus P.
13. I am using AIM (free) and my 3GS with OS 3.0.
I have 1,104 contacts which I sync with a Microsoft Exchange server.
1. Open AIM.
2. Touch the Contacts icon on the bottom row.
All other parts of the app function as expected, but when I go to Contacts, the app closes and returns me to the Apple app menu (home).
Posted at 9:01PM on Jun 28th 2009 by Paul
14. The issue I am running into, is that when I am logged into my account on my computer, the message comes to my phone and the computer doesn't get it, unless I am marked as away on my phone. Although when I do that then the message comes to both my phone and my computer, I can't seem to find a way to resolve this. It would seem to me that when I am logged in on my computer, the aim servers should know where to correctly send the message.
Posted at 9:56PM on Jun 28th 2009 by David Erlich
15. Thanks for push notifications! I have the purchased AIM iPhone app and it's pretty solid. I was wondering if there were any chances for buddy groupings and auto-away. Those are the two things I find most appealing compared to some of the other IM apps.
Posted at 11:37AM on Jun 29th 2009 by Taylor
16. I LOVE the new upgrade but one thing that i think should be improved is when you are typing an aim and the keyboard freezes momentarily to receive a message. Another thing about the upgrade is auto capitalization on the previous version it auto capitalized the first word of the message... besides that its really good :D
Posted at 1:07PM on Jun 30th 2009 by Vicky
17. I'm running 3.0 with the paid version of this app on a 3g iPhone. The problem I'm running into is when the app is closed and I'm doing anything else. I'll see a badge on the icon alerting me of new IMs but when I open the app only 1 will show up, the most recent. This is very frustrating. For example I had 6 new messages according to the badge, I opened the program and all I see is a one word IM correcting the spelling of what I can only assume is from one of the 5 IMs that are missing. Is this a known issue? Is there any fix for this currently? The fact that this is the paid version makes it that much more frustrating that it seems to be losing messages.
Posted at 6:32PM on Jun 30th 2009 by Alex
18. Love the new AIM app, but can we pllllleeeeease have the ability to turn off the vibrate alert when you receive an IM? If i'm using AIM and have it there in my hand I dont need it to vibrate every single time a message comes through. It's noisy, annoying and unnecessarily wastes battery.
Posted at 6:23AM on Jul 9th 2009 by anthony
19. AIM team,
Thank you so much for this amazing app! You have saved me hundreds of dollars in text messaging fees!
I was wondering if you could consider adding one quick update to the AIM app in the near future:
Please consider making user-generated nicknames display in the push notification. As mentioned above, many of my buddies are phone numbers that I commonly text. Therefore, there screen name is technically +15551234567, but I make their nickname Joe. However, my push notifications say the phone number screen name and not the nick name that I have given the screen name.
Thank you very much for considering my feature request!
Sincerely,
Dustin
Posted at 9:53PM on Jul 9th 2009 by Dustin
20. Not having auto-capitalization is maddening. I hope this can be added soon. Otherwise I love this app!
Posted at 12:27AM on Jul 10th 2009 by Chadwick