AT&T has now announced an upgrade to their Instant Messaging Relay service with will now deliver real time communication between callers. AT&T Instant Messaging Relay allows the hearing impaired to use AIM to communicate via an operator over the phone similar to TDD devices.

Now rather than waiting for a relay operator to type out long strings of text, the user now receives real time messages word for word as they are typed, reports engadget mobile.

The exec director of TDI, Claude Stout has said that it may sound like a trivial enhancement to hearing users, but for many hearing impaired callers it delivers and online communications experience which is closer to what hearing people encounter.