“Developer John Heaton found some code in the latest version of iOS that hints iChat functionality could finally be coming to the mobile operating system,” Mike Schramm reports for TUAW.

“The code mentions various chat services like Jabber and AIM, and while it doesn’t specifically mention iChat, there’s certainly some strings in there that aren’t yet included in any of Apple’s standard apps,” Schramm reports. “Apple may not bother calling it iChat, but it’s clear that at some point, the company was at least testing more functionality on mobile.”

Read more in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Lynn Weiler" for the heads up.]