Patent ID: 7660572

Claim:
In a server capable of communicating over a network with a plurality of electronic media devices, including a user device and one or more contact devices, a method of providing media status information for the one or more contact devices to a user device, the method comprising: receiving a request for media status information for the one or more contact devices from the user device, the one or more contact devices corresponding to one or more contacts indentified in a contact list stored on the user device, the request including an identifier and contact information taken from the contact list for the one or contact devices, the media status information including one or more media items currently being accessed by the one or more contact devices; creating a session contact list in response to receiving the request, the session contact list generated from the user device contact list and including at least a portion of the one or more contact devices identified in the request from the user device, wherein the session contact list also includes the identifier for the one or more contact devices; collecting the media status information for the one or more contact devices identified in the session contact list; and sending the media status information to the user device, wherein the user device displays the media status information to inform the user of the user device of the one or more media items being accessed by the one or more contact devices.