Patent ID: 7706832

Claim:
A mobile communication device for communicating with a contact through a plurality of communications applications, comprising: a user created address book for storing a plurality of contact entries, the contact entries capable of being located by a corresponding plurality of stored user provided aliases, where an alias of the plurality of user provided aliases is associated with a contact entry of the plurality of contact entries, and with at least one contact entry of the plurality of contact entries having a plurality of contact identifiers; a communication application, of the plurality of communications applications, configured to receive a contact identifier, of the plurality of contact identifiers, which is selected by a particular user by the alias of the plurality of user provided aliases, determining the associated contact entry for the alias, and determining the appropriate contact identifier from the plurality of contact identifiers appropriate for use with the communications application, which is selected to communicate with the contact through the communication application disposed on the mobile communications device; and wherein the communication application is configured to receive an incoming communication and allow a user to respond by entering an alias to which the response is directed, and wherein the communication application is configured to receive the alias, map the received alias to the associated contact entry and select the appropriate contact identifier from the plurality of contact identifiers associated with the selected contact entry.