Patent ID: 8452839

Claim:
A method for providing away messages to buddies of an instant messaging program user, the method comprising: providing an interface that displays a representation of a buddy group and a representation of a buddy included in the buddy group, wherein the representation of the buddy group and the representation of the buddy are displayed in a manner that indicates the buddy is included in the buddy group; enabling the user to set a global away message using the interface; enabling the user to set a group away message for the buddy group using the interface; enabling the user to set a personal away message for the buddy using the interface; sending one or more of the global away message, the group away message, and the personal away message to the buddy in response to the buddy attempting to communicate with the user through the instant messaging program when the user is offline; and enabling the user to append the personal away message to one or both of the global away message and the group away message using the interface.