Patent ID: 7610340

Claim:
A method for providing interoperability of email and instant messaging services, comprising: in response to receiving a request by an email recipient to respond to an email message using an instant message application, said email message received from an email sender: retrieving an instant message address for said email sender from storage; associating said instant message address of said email sender with an instant message composed by said email recipient; transmitting said instant message to said instant message address using said instant message application, wherein an email address associated with said email sender is mapped to a corresponding instant message address associated with said email sender; transmitting history data along with said instant message, said history data including communications exchanges previously conducted between said email recipient and said email sender; determining whether said email sender is available to receive said instant message; and in response to determining that said email sender is unavailable to receive said instant message and in response to receiving a request from said email sender to defer, storing said instant message and periodically retransmitting said instant message; wherein said communications exchanges include at least one of: email messages; instant messages; and attachments; and in response to receiving a request by an instant message recipient to respond to an instant message using an email application: retrieving an email address for an instant message sender from storage; associating said email address of said instant message sender with an email message composed by said instant message recipient; and transmitting said email message to said email address using said email application; wherein an instant message address associated with said instant message sender is mapped to a corresponding email address associated with said instant message sender; transmitting additional history data along with said email message, said additional history data including communications exchanges previously conducted between said instant message recipient and said instant message sender; wherein said communications exchanges previously conducted between said instant message recipient and said instant message sender include at least one of: email messages; instant messages; and attachments; and sending a notification of successful transmission to said instant message recipient.