Patent ID: 8351913

Claim:
A method to be executed at least in part in a computing device for facilitating communications in a cross ringing telephony system employing merged notification, comprising: simultaneously receiving at least two call indications through at least two communication paths associated with at least two different communication systems destined to a single user, the existence of the at least two different communication systems being transparent for other users who interact with the single user, the single user having a shared identity for the at least two different communication systems, the shared identify being used in inbound and outgoing calls, the shared identity comprising a plurality of formats, the plurality of formats comprising at least a telephone number and a Session Initiated Protocol Uniform Resource Identifier (SIP URI); determining whether the simultaneously received call indications are for a call from a same calling entity; and when the call indications are from the same calling entity: providing a merged notification to the user, wherein the merged notification includes information associated with the at least two communication paths, wherein the merged notification includes a visual alert, the merged notification further comprising a conversation pop-up window with call parameter information, the call parameter information comprising a call time, a call origination, and a call type; receiving a communication path selection from the user for call establishment; and establishing the call based on the user selected communication path.