Patent ID: 7139806

Claim:
A communication system for providing dynamic management of a plurality of contacts, the communication system comprising; a messaging server for managing communication of a plurality of electronic messages among a plurality of communication devices, wherein the messaging server comprises: a server memory for storing a plurality of contacts, a plurality of user status information, and a plurality of user settings for at least one messaging user, and further for storing a plurality of contact information for at least one contact of the plurality of contacts, and a server messaging application for dynamically managing the plurality of contacts for each messaging user by using the plurality of contact information for a predetermined contact and the plurality of user settings of the messaging user to determine a current priority setting for the predetermined contact for indicating a desired interest by the messaging user in contacting the predetermined contact; and at least one communication device of the plurality of communication devices for use by the at least one messaging user for receiving the plurality of contacts and the plurality of contact information from the messaging server, wherein the plurality of contact information are selected from a group consisting of a plurality of current data, a plurality of contact settings, a plurality notification rules, a plurality of visibility rules, a plurality of notification settings, and a plurality of visibility settings, wherein the plurality of contact settings are selected from a group consisting of a periodic setting, a desired contact period, a plurality of priority settings, a linger time, one or more triggers, one or more categories, one or more presentation settings, an attack time, and a decay time, and wherein the plurality of priority settings are selected from a group consisting of a post contact priority, a contact desired priority, and a minimum priority.