On September 10th, 2009 Lifestream found its way into AOL’s paid version of AIM for the iPhone and iPod touch. Today, exactly seven days later, Lifestream has now found its way into the free version of AIM for the iPhone and iPod touch. Coincidence? Maybe, but if Lifestream shows up in another app in exactly seven days, I will just assume it’s taking over the app world one week at a time.
Lifestream is the new addition to AOL’s lineup of social networking services. Just like in the paid version of AIM, you will notice that AIM Free Edition has a new Lifestream tab on the bottom. When accessed, it will allow you to set up a free account through Mobile Safari if you haven’t already. The service is able to pull in updates from all kinds of other social services, such as Twitter, Facebook, Digg, YouTube, Flickr, and Delicious, so you will no longer have to jump from one app to another to keep in touch. Lifestream also allows you to do more than just look at status updates from these services. It allows you to comment on status updates, view photos, and filter through content to find exactly what it is you are looking for.
Lifestream wasn’t the only addition to AIM Free Edition, however. Once again, just like the paid version of AIM, AIM Free Edition features a redesigned AIM status message screen, updated Buddy info, and minor performance and stability improvements.
So, AIM Free Edition is once again exactly like it’s paid counterpart, except it contains ads, which means you can see what Lifestream is all about without having to spend a single penny.
This is pretty interesting. I don’t know that it’s going to be a killer feature, but interesting what kind of space AOL is heading into. Are they trying to be the new friendfeed now that friendfeed was swallowed up by facebook? Twitter competitor? They also launched a Going app, so they seem very interested in this social media stuff. Good for them, I always felt twitter was a rip off of AIM away messages