Patent ID: 7373142

Claim:
A mobile device operable by a user to initiate communications in both an expedited and a non-expedited manner over one or more wireless communication networks with one or more contacts, the mobile device comprising: a processing subsystem and a memory subsystem, the processing subsystem coupled to the memory subsystem and operable to store and retrieve data in the memory subsystem, to execute instructions stored in the memory subsystem; and mobile device program code comprising program instructions executable by the processing subsystem and stored in the memory subsystem and upon execution cause the mobile device to: store in the memory subsystem one or more contact data set records associated with the one or more contacts, each contact data set record having one or more associated communication contact data; store in the memory subsystem one or more communication preference data sets, each associated with the one or more contact data sets, each communication preference data set defining preferred communication modes for communicating with one or more contacts associated with the one or more contact data sets, the contact preference data of a communication preference data set defining a set of selection rules based on a selection variable, and the communication preference data sets definable by the user of the mobile device; and upon receiving a command to initiate an expedited communication function to a contact associated with a contact data set, automatically execute the communication according to a preferred communication mode defined by the communication preference data set associated with the contact data set, wherein the automatic execution does not occur upon receiving a command to initiate a non-expedited communication function.