AOL unveiled a brand new AOL Mail client dubbed as Project Phoenix. The revamped version is a complete rewrite and focuses mainly on speed and integration of inline content as well as access to other email services. Even though the service will not be available for users till next year, AOL started testing the service amongst a limited number of users. The official Project Phoenix site, is offering users an invite to be amongst one of those first users to experience, the all new AOL Mail.

Brad Garlinghouse, President AOL Consumer Applications Groups, said:

Email remains one of the most vital communication tools despite all of the new sites and apps available to consumers today. There is still so much innovation to be done in the space and Project Phoenix is just the beginning. We see a huge opportunity to disrupt email in a big way. AOL is the company that brought everyone online, and now we’re making it simpler and more enjoyable to be there.

The AOL team wants to take over Gmail in terms of usability and user experience. I really wonder, why is everyone after the Google email service? Maybe one of the reason being, the great features, speed, ease, and new features added every other day.

Those who have experienced the Phoenix Project by AOL, reveal that the new interface resembles Google’s Gmail. The inbox delivers three flavors, depending on the version you want and would like to sort emails. A classic view is similar to the Gmail default which lists emails chronologically.

While the second one being the reading pane view, enables users to read the full email while still having the email list opened on one side. And lastly, the expanded view which shows an excerpt of the email body in the list. There is also a new Quick Box feature which allows users to send emails while enabling users to send instant messages, text messages as well as update to Facebook or Twitter.

After the Quick Box feature, AOL introduced the Smart View which allows users to view attached photos, get details on files or see a map of a location. And finally AOL told, that the biggest feature is the possibility to use your existing email provider, including Gmail, Yahoo Mail and Hotmail.

Get a Phoenix Project invite [here]