America Online announced on Wednesday that the Mac version of AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) 4.7, the company’s popular online chat application, is now available for download. It adds Friendly Name support as well as a new file sharing implementation.
The Friendly Name feature allows you to create a more familiar name when you add an ICQ or mobile user to your Buddy List. You can also edit the existing entries for ICQ and mobile users and create Friendly Names for them. The new monikers travel with those people whether you’re trading instant messages with them, checking their status in your Buddy List, or viewing them elsewhere in AIM.
File sharing was also enhanced in AIM 4.7 by no longer requiring you to have one shared folder. You can now share files from multiple applications by dragging them from anywhere on your Mac to the My Shared Files window.
If you’re an existing AIM user, you can download the 3.4MB upgrade from the AIM Web site. New users will need to create a screen name and sign up for the service before downloading the full application. AIM 4.7 requires Mac OS X v.10.1 or higher or Mac OS 9.x with CarbonLib 1.3.1 or higher. OS 8.6 users will need to download AIM 4.3.