Patent ID: 7826827

Claim:
A mobile electronic communications device comprising: a transceiver; a touch-screen display configured to display a virtual keypad having a plurality of virtual keys; and a processor unit coupled to the transceiver and touch-screen display, wherein the processor unit is configured to associate the virtual keys with corresponding contacts of a contact list stored on the mobile electronic communications device, each of the virtual keys of said plurality being associated with only one corresponding contact of said contact list, wherein a first contact of said contact list is associated with a first virtual key of the plurality and a second contact of said contact list is associated with a second virtual key of the plurality; compare received message data to said contact list, determine, based on the comparison, that a first received message is from a first contact of the contact list and that a second received message is from a second contact of said contact list, animate the first virtual key to indicate receipt of the first received message from the first contact of the contact list, wherein the animated first virtual key manifests an appearance of being in motion, animate the second virtual key to indicate receipt of the second received message from the second contact of said contact list, wherein the lighted animated second virtual key manifests an appearance of being in motion, cause the touch-screen display to display a first list of messages received from only the first contact in response to the selection, by a user, of the first virtual key, and cause the touch-screen display to display a second list of messages received from only the second contact in response to the selection, by the user, of the second virtual key.