Patent ID: 8576828

Claim:
An apparatus for receiving incoming messages comprising: one or more components configured to, in response to receiving an incoming message: (a) determine whether an override flag has been set for a message source that has sent the incoming message; (b) determine whether the incoming message has been received within a window comprising a start period of time and an end period of time; (c) determine whether the apparatus is currently in a particular alert mode, the particular alert mode used to alert a user of the apparatus of one or more incoming messages received from one or more types of message sources; and (d) in response to: (1) the override flag being set for the message source, (2) the incoming message being received within the window, and (3) the apparatus currently being in the particular alert mode, overriding the particular alert mode to a second alert mode in order to facilitate alerting the user of the device of the incoming message.