*Separate the Buddy List from the Chat List. Or have an option for both. The old one was long and slim "skinnier", always on the side desktop. It was convenient.
*Sending images. Opening it up as a link is a HORRIBLE idea.
The older version of AIM version 7.3 had a feature where it would open a new AIM window with just pictures. So both buddy pictures where located in the same place, and decently sized.
*What happened to the Aim Themes?
*TIMESTAMP
*Fonts. Colors.
*Options for the old "IM Bubbles" that didn't have an actual bubble.
*BUDDYLISTS. Please. It's easier to find people we've had in groups for YEARS.
*Seeing my buddies statuses.
*Hide Offline buddies.
*Show if buddy is MOBILE or ONLINE
*Linked screen-names.
*Spell check for windows
*Options, options, options.

The Old 7.5 AIM was great. The layout. The chatbox. Everything.
This new AIM feels like a totally different program. The little yellow guy isn't even there anymore. Changes are great, AIM is moving forward, but the first thing I thought of was the SKYPE window when I logged on. AIM was the best program to chat with friends. Bring it back.

Hi, the new AIM is great and stuff, but here's something I really miss in any chat/social PC program: the ability to send files over to people even when they're not online. You simply store files on a server and send them through along with a message once the contact starts aim. When a contact doesn't start aim for a certain amount of time (like, a month or 3 weeks or so), both the sender and the 'supposed-to'-receiver get a notification that their transfer has been stored for too long and they have to upload again.
Would also be great to embed in mobile apps, so that we can download our files wherever we are.

I don't feel like the new AIM really.. serves my use cases at all. I mean sure sometimes someone will share a photo, sometimes someone will do this and that and whatever, and some of these inline options and whatever for that are nice. But the main thing people do, more than ANYTHING else, is just TALK to people. They open a window and type in it. And whatever neat new bells and whistles you've added, you've damaged that core action with your alterations to window management. This huge and monolothic window you've got here, where even when all chats are closed there's a huge BLANK space saying "lol chats will go here," is just damaging enough to my existing experience to negate any of those new bells and whistles. Everything you expouse on the aim.com site, all the new features and new options, yeah they all sound nice, and I welcome them! But you broke the core usability of the program at the same time with this huge connected window. I can't ctrl-tab between chats, I have huge swaths of wasted space, my day-to-day chatting is markedly made worse by the new AIM. And you aren't even selling these changes as an improvement! The marketing site is not all "ENJOY OUR NEW SINGLE WINDOW," it is selling the ACTUAL enhancements. So why do we need this one huge new window? Restore the AIM 7 window management, keep all of your new stuff, and everyone will be happy. A chat program by its very nature is something that stays alive the whole time you use your computer, it's not "I am spending time in my chat program now," it's not something that benefits from a full-size windowed experience. It works on the fringes, in between programs, on the sidelines WHILE you do other things. Little chat windows, easy ctrl-tabbing, a buddy list you can easily hide without hiding the chat windows, this is what a chat program NEEDS. Restore that, continue to promote your ACTUAL improvements, and you'll have a new version of AIM that people will actually find worth upgrading to.