Patent ID: 8015249

Claim:
A computer-implemented system configured to mitigate data usage in a messaging application, the computer-implemented system comprising: a processor; a register component configured to register a device with a presence agent to monitor a plurality of contacts, wherein the presence agent is configured to provide periodic presence updates to the device; a usage monitor component configured to monitor a usage of the device, detect that a messaging application is sent to a background of a display screen, track an amount of time the messaging application is in the background, and determine that the periodic presence updates are no longer to be received in response to the amount of time exceeding a time defined by a function of time; an activation component configured to selectively deactivate, from monitoring by the presence agent, a subset of the plurality of contacts independently of an explicit user command and in response to the amount of time the messaging application is in the background exceeding the time defined by the function of time, wherein the subset of the plurality of contacts is deactivated in a sequential order according to a priority; and a computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to implement at least one of the register component, usage monitor component or the activation component.