Patent ID: 8090397

Claim:
A group communication method of communication terminals by which a plurality of communication terminals connected to a communication network including a communication server apparatus engage in group communication via the communication server apparatus, comprising: a personal information management step of managing personal information for communication terminals of a plurality of communicating parties; a participation request transmission step of registering a plurality of communication terminals for engaging in the group communication in a member list and transmitting participation requests for the group communication to the plurality of communication terminals when designating a plurality of communication terminals, to engage in the group communication based on the plurality of personal information and starting the group communication; a group communication control step of performing processing for the group communication with communication terminals to which responds of participate with respect to the participation requests exist; a participation intention reception step of receiving intention to participate in the group communication from another communication terminal to which no participation request has been transmitted, in a state of “party not participating” in which there is at least one communication terminal among the plurality of communication terminals sent the participation requests which will not participate in the group communication; and an other party updating step of deleting any communication terminal not participating in the group communication from the member list when receiving the participation intentions in the group communication, in the participation intention reception step, and registering the other party of the other communication terminal in the member list as another party for engaging in group communication, to enable the other communication terminal to participate in the group communication.