Patent ID: 8806027

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving an announcement message at a first media device from a second media device, the announcement message including: a unique identifier associated with the second media device; and a status describing both a current activity of the second media device and a media object that is currently playing at the second media device, the media object being a subject of the current activity and having media characteristics; validating the announcement message at the first media device, the validating comprising validating the announcement message when the media characteristics are not included in a blocked list that identifies restricted media characteristics of media objects playing at other devices, the blocked list corresponding to presence preferences associated with the first media device that are usable to block presence visibility of the first media device at the second media device, the validating further comprising determining whether the second media device is blocked by the first media device by at least comparing the unique identifier associated with the second media device to a list of blocked device identifiers associated with devices that are blocked by the first media device, the list of blocked device identifiers including at least one media device unique identifier associated with at least one device with which communication is restricted; sending an acknowledgement message from the first media device to the second media device, the acknowledgment message including both a different unique identifier associated with the first device and a status describing a current activity of the first media device, the different unique identifier and the status of the first media device being displayable at the second media device; and displaying, at the first media device, the unique identifier and the status of the second media device.