Why does AIM need my phone number? And why can't it find it? The stock IM application has been complaining that it "can't access my phone number" when I try to connect to AIM. I've been able to connect when I'm using a wireless connection a few times, but never using the data connection. I don't have any trouble getting gchat messages or mail or making phone calls. The error says:


  Unable to sign into the AIM service.
  Please try again later.  (Detail:
  Sorry, the phone number cannot be read
  from your SIM card. Please contact
  your operator for help.)


This has bugged me since I got my phone, definitely not new, but it would be nice to be able to use the IM on my phone. Any ideas about what might be afoot?

Phone: T-mobile G1, unlocked and running on AT&amp;T
OS: 1.6/donut (I know, I know, I can do better)
Apparently this is by design (did not know that until today). You can only use the AIM, MSN, and Yahoo! messengers on the G1 if you're using a T-Mobile SIM card. I suppose this may apply to other unlocked phones since the comment on the bug tracker implies that it's actually got something to do with the way Android or its APIs are doing things under the hood.

I'd just recommend trying a different client, I guess. I personally recommend Trillian or Meebo, but there's a bunch of others. Trillian is $5 (or you can go get an old beta version - they were free), but I like the UI and features a bit more. Meebo is free but also very good. One big difference is that Trillian supports C2DM, but that doesn't really apply here since it wasn't introduced until Android 2.2

As for the "why": I'm not sure, really. Matt may be correct, but AIM can send SMS messages from desktop clients, so your number seems like it might not really be necessary. I'm inclined to agree with that guess, though, since I can't think of any other reasons.