Patent ID: 7895277

Claim:
A method for providing conditional reminders for electronic messages comprising: identifying, via computing equipment running at least one program, an electronic message conveyed from a sender to a recipient, wherein the electronic message is a text exchange message that is a message sent during an online chat or an instant messaging communication; the recipient, via computing equipment running at least one program, utilizing a graphical user interface of a communication application to configure reminders for responding to incoming messages received by the communication application, wherein recipient established reminders and reminder conditions comprises response times and response conditions; a software program, running on computing equipment, determining a response time and a response condition for responding to the electronic message, wherein the determined response time is one of the response times configured via the graphical user interface and wherein the determined response condition is one of the response conditions established via the graphical user interface; and when the response time expires and when the response condition is unsatisfied, a software program, running on computing equipment, presenting a reminder to the recipient, where the reminder indicates that a response to the electronic message is due.