Patent ID: 7792924

Claim:
A method, comprising: establishing a communication channel between a mobile phone and a computer via an instant messaging (IM) service; creating a first account associated with the mobile phone and a second account associated with the computer, the first and second accounts associated with the IM service; establishing a buddy list associated with the second account, wherein the first account is a member of the buddy list; and after establishing the buddy list, initiating a control session between the mobile phone and the computer such that the mobile phone controls multiple applications on the computer using data packets sent via the IM service, wherein each data packet has at least a command field and a transaction identifier field, the command field to include a command for controlling one application of the multiple applications on the computer, and the transaction identifier field to match responses from the computer with commands sent from the mobile phone, the mobile phone having a first user interface differing from a second user interface of the computer.