Patent ID: 7139555

Claim:
In a mobile phone network that comprises a mobile phone carrier providing mobile phone service to a plurality of mobile phone users and a data service provider providing data services to the plurality of mobile phone users through the mobile phone carrier, a method of maintaining current contact and metadata information for initiating multiple forms of mobile phone communication with a contact, the method comprising acts of: creating a contact list that stores contact information for multiple forms of communication with one or more contacts in the mobile phone; designating at least one contact as an automatic live contact to be updated as new information becomes available, with any remaining contacts being designated as other contacts that will not be updated as new information becomes available; sending the contact list to the data service provider for backup storage and update processing so that as new information becomes available for the at least one automatic live contact, the data service provider can send the new information to the mobile phone; periodically receiving through the mobile phone carrier automatic contact and metadata information updates initiated by the data service provider for the at least one automatic live contact; and updating the at least one automatic live contact with the received updates so that an appropriate form of communication may be initiated using accurate contact and metadata for the automatic live contact.