SAN FRANCISCO -- AOL announced a major update to it AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) client, featuring connectivity with social networks like Facebook and Twitter that will simplify the process of updating status messages and staying connected to friends.

"It's lighter, faster and cleaner," said Jeremy Rephlo, director of product management for AIM.

But there's more to the new AIM than social networks. Instead of simple private pings between two AIM users, AOL has added threaded 'one-to-many' online conversations allowing for group chat. AIM's new Lifestream tab shows connections to services such as Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Delicious and YouTube and lets users automatically cross-post their status, send pictures, videos and Web links.

The news comes amid booming interest and popularity of social networks as well as tools to let users better manage them. Last week, Motorola (NYSE: MOT) and T-Mobile unveiled the Cliq, a mobile device designed to integrate and simplify access to content streams from social networks while on the go.

Here at the TechCrunch50 conference, AOL officials put the new IM through its paces, sending updates to different social networks, sending pictures, Web links via IM from a Mac, to a Blackberry, iPhone and notebook computer.

Users always have the option to simply keep their updates to the IM network of friends, but the new version recognizes the growing importance and popularity of other services and the likelihood that friends aren't just on one or two networks.

The news represents a turning point in AOL's relatively closed network, while still positioning it as a starting point for real-time communications. For example, instead of leaving AIM for Twitter, the new version lets you drag URLs into your Twitter feed and have them automatically convert to shortened URL using Bit.ly.

AOL officials said the new version will make AIM one of, if not the largest Twitter and Facebook clients in the world.

LATEST NEWS

Microsoft's Reliability Update Triggers Crashes
Microsoft Denies Windows 7 Tied to Battery Issues
Google Wants Chinese Look-Alike to Knock It Off
Pip.io: Not Just Another Social Network?
Google Plans to Twitterize Gmail?

For now, the new Lifestream version is available to registered users as a beta at AOL's beta software site, with the final version released soon. AOL said it will be announcing other client platforms next Tuesday.