Patent ID: 8825878

Claim:
A method of operating a mobile device, the method comprising: a processor of the mobile device grouping contacts stored on the mobile device, based on information associated with the contacts, the contacts each corresponding to a respective one of a plurality of instant messaging services connectable to the mobile device; the processor determining a configuration identifier from a message exchanged with an instant messaging server proxy in accordance with a generic instant messaging protocol comprising tag length encoded messages, the configuration identifier defining one of the plurality of instant messaging services; the processor loading a configuration file for one of the plurality of instant messaging services based on the configuration identifier, the configuration file being one of a plurality of configuration files each addressing a corresponding one of the plurality of instant messaging services; the processor configuring an instant messaging application and instant messaging user interface according to the configuration file to address an instant messaging server type for the corresponding one of the plurality of instant messaging services; the processor displaying a contact list in the configured instant messaging user interface comprising a plurality of contact groupings for at least the one of the plurality of instant messaging services, on a display of the mobile device; and the processor invoking a command upon detecting a selection of one of the contact groups in the contact list interface from an input device for the mobile device, the command associated with a communication with the server proxy via the generic instant messaging protocol.