Patent ID: 9009264
Filing Date: 2015-04-14
Classification: H04L,H04M

Abstract:
1. A method of a server device managing a contact list for a client device, the method comprising: the server device defining a tag representing the currency of a contact list corresponding to the client device, the contact list comprising one or more groups of at least one contact associated with a plurality of IM services; the server device storing the tag; the server device updating the tag in response to updates to the contact list; the server device receiving from the client device, a value corresponding to a copy of the tag as previously stored by the client device; the server device comparing the value received from the client device to the tag stored by the server device to determine if a contact list update is required on the client device; for inbound IM communications, the server device: for outbound IM communications, the server device: sending an outbound data packet according to the generic client to server protocol by including a corresponding configuration ID indicating from which of a plurality of different IM server types the outbound data packet is being sent to enable a recipient device to load a configuration file according to the configuration ID, the recipient device storing more than one such configuration file to address the plurality of different IM server types.