This scheme has not been entirely successful. TOC has also been made available to the public, in an attempt to throw a bone to third-party client developers and lure them away from OSCAR. AIM Express uses another protocol called TOC. The standard protocol that AIM clients use to communicate is called OSCAR. AIM Express does not have all the features of stand-alone AIM clients (such as file transfer, buddy icons, and away messages), but it still allows the basic functions of person-to-person text messaging. There is also a client called AIM Express implemented as an applet for the Java platform that runs in your web browser. However, some users stay on the 3.0 series because the software license agreement for 4.0 and later clients includes a clause prohibiting the user from ever using a third-party client program. Stand-alone official AIM client software is available for free (but is not free software in the GNU sense) for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Windows CE, and Palm OS.
Recent (4.3 and later) versions of the client software store your contact information on AOL's servers, so you can talk to up to 200 of your buddies from any computer with Internet access. Somewhere in the 4.x series, the AIM client for Microsoft Windows added the ability to play games against one another. Unlike Napster, and other peer-to-peer software, there is no directory of files, you only transfer files to one another as one would in an email.
Since version 2.0, AIM has included person-to-person text messaging, chatroom messaging, and the ability to share files peer-to-peer with your buddies. AOL also has a member directory where AIM users can locate others online who share their interests. Chat topics range from *NSYNC to current affairs. Advocates claim that it's easy to locate these users by visiting chatrooms that AOL has set up solely for those purposes.
AIM has 100 million users, with a large proportion using Internet slang. It allows users to communicate instantly through text to their "buddies" around the world, provided they have the AIM software. AOL has described this technology as a means of "immediate cross- Internet communication". The most recent software version is AIM 5.2, released in June of 2003. The AOL Instant Messenger ( AIM) is a free instant messaging computer program, published by AOL, which uses the OSCAR instant messaging protocol and the TOC protocol.
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