The AOL APIs: AIM Phoneline

Voice-Over-Internet-Protocol (VOIP) seems destined to take over telephony before long. Why do we need multiple networks that enable people to converse by voice? Of course, VOIP still has some problems, such as occasionally intermittent service. But, as the speed and reliability of the Internet increase, such problems should ultimately be overcome.

AIM Phoneline is unique among the current VOIP offerings in several ways. First, of course, it's integrated with AIM. If you have an AIM Phoneline phone number, and someone calls that number while you're logged into AIM, your AIM client instantly notifies you that you have an incoming call, providing you with options to answer the call (which of course works best if you have your microphone hooked up) or send it to your voice mail.

Figure 1. AIM notifies you when you have an incoming AIM Phoneline call.

A more unusual feature of AIM Phoneline is the APIs it offers. Yes, you can program AIM Phoneline! The AIM Phoneline Developers page is the home resource for AIM Phoneline development. There you can find API documentation and links to other resources for developers, such as forums, FAQs, and the AIM Phoneline developer's mailing list.

AIM Phoneline has earned a place on John Musser's Programmable Web site, both for its API and for the Top 10 Colleges mashup.

Resources

In addition to the AIM Phoneline API documentation, there are plenty of other resources to help you get started with programming your own AIM Phoneline capabilities:

• The Extras page on the AIM Phoneline developer site includes informative videos and podcasts about AIM Phoneline development.
• Shashank Tiwari's AOL Developer Network article "Getting Started with the AIM Phoneline API" is a great starting point if you'd like to jump into integration and customization of AIM Phoneline capability, within AIM or elsewhere.
• If you search for "AIM Phoneline" on dev.aol.com, you'll find blog posts and other useful materials.
• A search on Google already returns hundreds of pages.

AIM Phoneline has gotten a lot of attention thus far, and the capabilities provided by the API should lead to increasing developer interest over time.

-- Kevin Farnham
O'Reilly Media