Patent ID: 7296057

Claim:
A system comprising: at least one instant message originating client system, for accepting a correction to a previously sent instant message, determining whether a message correction of the previously sent instant message requires sending one of a complete corrected message and a message correction specification, and based on the determination of message correction of the previously sent message, sending from the at least one instant message originating client system to an instant messaging server one of a complete corrected message and a message correction specification; an instant messaging server, communicatively coupled to the at least one instant message originating client system, for receiving a message correction specification and a message identifier (ID) from the at least one originating client system, and sending the message correction specification and the message ID to the recipient client system; and at least one instant message recipient client system, communicatively coupled to the instant messaging server, for receiving a message correction specification and a message identifier (ID) from the instant messaging server during an ongoing instant messaging conversation between the instant message originating client system and the instant message recipient client system, retrieving a message with a corresponding message ID from a conversation log for the instant messaging conversation, correcting the content of the retrieved message by updating text in the retrieved message, updating the conversation log with the corrected message, and activating an alert to notify a user of the at least one instant message recipient client system of an update to the conversation log.