Patent ID: 8577978

Claim:
A method for communicating electronic messages, the method comprising: receiving an electronic message; receiving an indication of a user identifier specified by a sender as corresponding to the intended recipient of the electronic message; determining, using at least one processor, that the intended recipient is not presently available to receive the electronic message; maintaining a contact list for the sender, the contact list comprising user identifiers associated with recipients known to the user, the recipients having a first degree of separation from the sender; accessing, for each one of the recipients on the sender's contact list, a contact list associated with each recipient; designating the contacts listed in the contact lists of each recipient on the sender's contact list as being known to the user; determining that the identity of the intended recipient is known to the sender based on the contact lists; identifying, based on the determination that the intended recipient is known to the sender, a mobile telephone number associated with the intended recipient; determining that the intended recipient is available to receive electronic messages; and sending the electronic message to the intended recipient based on the identified mobile phone number.