Patent ID: 8903363

Claim:
A method for placing a telephone call, the method comprising the steps of: a first telephone receiving a request to place a call to a second telephone, wherein the second telephone is associated with a contact; the first telephone retrieving a user preference for obtaining an availability status of the contact; the first telephone obtaining the availability status of the contact from one of a plurality of sources based at least in part on an order of priority of the sources defined by the user preference, wherein the one of the plurality of sources is a social network program operable to access a profile of the contact on a social network, the profile including a current activity of the contact; the first telephone determining a time that the availability status was updated; the first telephone determining that the time is within a determined timeframe, wherein the time frame is determined by the first telephone dynamically based, at least in part, on the availability status of the contact; the first telephone displaying the availability status of the contact, wherein the step of the first telephone displaying the availability status is in response to the step of the first telephone determining that the time is within the determined timeframe; and the first telephone prompting for a decision whether to place the call to the second telephone.