Patent ID: 7865563

Claim:
A computing system, comprising: a processor; a data store; and a memory that comprises a plurality of components that are executable by the processor, the components comprising: a receiver component that receives a request to create a persistent messaging group for an instant messaging application, wherein the request includes an indication of one or more entities that are desired to be members of the persistent messaging group; a group creator component that creates the persistent messaging group based at least in part upon the received group creation request, wherein the persistent messaging group is persisted over multiple instant messaging sessions, and wherein the receiver component receives a group message and recognizes that the group message is desired to be disseminated to all entities of the persistent messaging group; a message transmitter component that transmits the group message to each member of the persistent messaging group who is online, wherein the message transmitter component causes the group message to be retained in the data store as a persisted message; and an offline message transmitter that receives an indication that a first member of the persistent messaging group has come online, accesses the persisted message in the data store, and transmits the persisted message to the first member of the persistent messaging group, wherein the first member of the instant messaging group was offline when the receiver component received the group message.