Patent ID: 8909700

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, at a first application server from a mobile station, an initiation of an instant messaging application; in response to receiving the initiation of the instant messaging application, providing, by the first application server to a first presence server, a communication that a first user associated with the mobile station is active, wherein the first presence server sets presence data for the first user to active based on the communication; providing, to a second user who is a member of a list associated with the first user, the presence data for the first user; determining that the mobile station has not accessed the instant messaging application for a predetermined amount of time; in response to determining that the mobile station has not accessed the instant messaging application for the predetermined amount of time, sending, to the mobile station, an alert; upon determining that no response to the alert is received from the mobile station, updating the presence data for the first user from active to present and inactive; in response to determining that the mobile station has entered a sleep mode, updating the presence data for the first user; receiving, at the first application server from the second user, a message for delivery to the mobile station of the first user; and delivering the message to the mobile station of the first user based on the presence data for the first user.