Patent ID: 8468205

Claim:
A machine implemented method for a plurality of messaging services, the method comprising: maintaining a configuration for one or more local presence statuses of one or more buddy groups of a user using the messaging services, each buddy group including one or more buddy accounts established via the messaging services with the user, at least one of the buddy groups including buddy accounts established via more than two of the messaging services, the user having one or more user accounts subscribing to the messaging services, the user having one or more buddies established via the messaging services, each buddy account belonging to one of the buddies, each local presence status to represent a state of message exchanges between the user and a buddy group according to the configuration without revealing the user accounts and the buddy accounts; identifying one or more service specific settings matching presence settings via the configuration, each presence setting associated with one of the local presence statuses and one of the buddy groups, each service specific setting specifying a service specific presence of one of the messaging services for one of the user accounts and one of the buddy accounts, the local presence statuses being separate from service specific presences of the messaging services; determining a presence notification message for the service specific setting in the one of the messaging services; and sending the presence notification message to notify the one of the messaging services for the presence settings.