Patent ID: 8204519

Claim:
A method of operating a portable communications device to perform an update operation, the method comprising: receiving an SMS message including a header portion and a message body portion; determining if the SMS message is a text message intended to be displayed to a user of the device or is a device update message, said determining if the SMS message is a text message or is a device update message including checking the body portion of the SMS message for a service control message indicator included at a predetermined location in the body portion of said SMS message; if the SMS message is determined to be a device update message: omitting the SMS message from an inbox of said user; and performing an update operation as a function of the content of the body portion of said received SMS message without displaying the full content of the body portion of said SMS message, said SMS message including in said body portion an update command and information to be used when implementing said update command, said performing an update operation including performing the commanded update operation using said information; wherein said update command is a command to update a phonebook application; and wherein said performing an update operation includes storing information included in the body portion of the SMS message in memory as part of a new entry in said phone book; and if said SMS message is not determined to be a device update message: displaying a text message included in said received SMS message to said user of said device.