Patent ID: 7814160

Claim:
A method in a computing system with a processor and a memory for providing multi-modal message threads, the method comprising: receiving a selection of a message, the message being from a sender and having a send mode of communication; displaying to a user the message in context of the send mode; receiving from the user an indication to reply to the displayed message; and in response to receiving the indication to reply, automatically determining by the computing system a reply mode of communication to use when sending a reply to the message, wherein when the reply is to be sent to multiple recipients with different levels of presence, the determining selects a reply mode that is a multiple mode so that the reply is sent to each recipient in a mode that is appropriate to that recipient, the reply mode, for at least one of the multiple recipients being different from the send mode; inputting from the user the reply in context of a determined reply mode, the context of the determined reply mode being different from the context of the send mode; generating a multi-modal message thread that includes a reference to the message and a reference to the reply; storing the multi-modal message thread with the reference to the message and the reference to the reply; and sending to each recipient, the reply in accordance with the reply mode for that recipient, the reply including an indication that it is a reply to the message wherein the stored multi-modal message thread includes references to messages and replies sent using different modes of communication.