Patent ID: 8812600

Claim:
A method comprising: accessing an instant messaging system from a game networking system to send an out-of-band instant message to a friend of a user of the game networking system on behalf of the user, wherein the accessing is performed by a machine associated with the game networking system; selecting the out-of-band instant message from a plurality of messages generated by the game networking system based on a level of urgency of the out-of-band instant message, one or more of the plurality of messages being transmittable as different message types based on levels of urgency of each of the plurality of messages; and sending the out-of-band instant message to the friend of the user of the game networking system on behalf of the user, the out-of-band instant message including a request that the friend of the user perform an action with respect to a game executing on the game networking system in response to an action performed by the user with respect to the game.