At the beginning of May,AOL announcedit was to start working with Google to allow users of its AIM messaging service would be able to chat with Google Talk (or “Chat” within Gmail) users without having to log into both services. Today that feature has begun gone live.

Although there hasn’t been an official announcement, Pidgin developer Mark Dolinerannounced the feature had gone liveon the Pidgin mailing list:

The interoperation magically started working for me. It’s so neat!

AIM users can IM “whoever at gmail.com.” The first IM will fail to go through and the Google Talk user will get an authorization request. After the auth request is accepted, messages from the AIM user to the Google Talk user go through. And Google Talk users can IM”screenname at aol.com” or “email(domain.com)@aol.com” IMs go through immediately. Even status messages and typing notification appear to get translated between the two protocols.

If you’ve registered a gmail.com account as your AIM screen name, and an IM user IMs “whatever at gmail.com,” messages go to both, for the mostpart.

As a result of the change, Gmail users will soon be blocked from logging into AIM via Gmail’s chat section, meaning they will have to add their AIM contacts into Gmail’s contacts list.AOL has saidit is working on an AIM to Gmail importer but it also notes that users can add their “buddies” one at a time. As soon as they are imported across, users will be able to message directly from their Gmail username but their AIM username will no longer reflect their online status.

When the launch of the new feature is officially announced remains to be seen, AOL’s initial announcement said Gmail users would be alerted when they logged into their email account. AOL could be readying the protocols for users before announcing the launch, the features are not live within Gmail just yet but it would also explain why developers are seeing the features going live within third-party applications (and possibly GTalk).

Calling all Scaleup founders! Join the Soonicorn Summit on November 28 in Amsterdam.

Meet with the leaders of Picnic, Miro, Carbon Equity and more during this exclusive event dedicated to Scaleup Founders!

If this is the case, we expect all users to be notified soon.

Story byMatt Brian

Matt is the former News Editor for The Next Web. You can follow him on Twitter, subscribe to his updates on Facebook and catch up with him(show all)Matt is the former News Editor for The Next Web. You can follow him onTwitter, subscribe to his updates onFacebookand catch up with him onGoogle+.

Get the TNW newsletter

Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.