(ARA) - Many people use the new year to resolve to stay in touch with friends and family. While not everyone can catch a plane or train to be with the ones they love, today’s communications technologies make staying in touch with friends and relatives easier than ever.

Video instant messaging and mobile messaging are gaining in popularity as convenient and fun ways to feel like you’re right next door even when you’re not. And now, group voice conferencing -- the modern version of the “party line” -- is offering a way to chat with up to 15 friends and family members at the same time.

Video Instant Messaging
These days, nearly everyone has friends and family scattered across the country, if not around the world. It may be impossible to see everyone for birthdays, special occasions or even to say hello, but video instant messaging can bring you one step closer to your sister in California and your favorite aunt in Maine.

By combining conventional instant messaging with real-time video services, Video IM enables you to send live audio-video messages back and forth with friends and family members. With just a simple web cam and the IM service on your home computer, you can catch up with siblings or let children stay in contact with long distance relatives in real-time.

Most instant messaging services, including the popular AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) service, give users the ability to send and receive video instant messages. And with easy-to-use web cams available nationwide, Video IM lets you see and hear the family and friends you don't get to see very often.

Mobile Messaging
Whether you’re out shopping or traveling to far-flung locales, it’s easy to send a quick text message or mobile instant message from your cell phone. To send a text message, just open your phone’s messaging menu, enter a 10-digit cellular number into the “to” field and text away.

Alternatively, if you and your friends or family members send instant messages from your computers, you can use your mobile phone to continue the conversation whether you’re on the bus or caught standing in line at the store. Just activate IM forwarding when you leave your computer to re-direct your IMs to your phone or log on through your phone’s mobile IM menu.

Mobile instant messaging lets you stay in touch throughout the year, no matter where you are.

Voice Conferencing
Brand new and particularly convenient for families and groups of friends that are scattered across the country is the modern day “party line” from the AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) service. AIM Voice Conferencing by Lightbridge is a group calling service that makes it easy to round up as many as 15 friends and family members for a multi-party chat -- right from the Buddy List feature.

AIM Voice Conferencing sessions are conducted over regular telephone lines, and there are no dial-ins or PIN numbers to remember, which makes it easy to get started. And if you want to include someone who is not on your Buddy List, no problem. Simply add their landline or mobile phone number to the call roster to invite them to join the fun. Click “Start Call” to send instant invitations, and let AIM do the rest.

To start the new year off right, you can use 500 free minutes from AIM Voice Conferencing to round up the gang and share stories and news. For more on this new service, check out http://www.aim.com/.

Courtesy of ARA Content