Patent ID: 7761507

Claim:
A method of performing an electronic chat session including images over a network, the method comprising: sending, from a first terminal associated with a first user to a second terminal associated with a second user, a first image and an associated first image identifier; storing the first image and the first image identifier in a memory of the second terminal; displaying a second image associated with a second image identifier in a chat history on the second terminal after storing the first image and the first image identifier; detecting at the first terminal that the first user is focusing on the first image during a chat session conducted between the first terminal and the second terminal after displaying the second image on the second terminal; sending chat text for the chat session from the first terminal to the second terminal; resending the first image identifier from the first terminal to the second terminal in response to the detecting; receiving the resent first image identifier from the first terminal at the second terminal; comparing the resent first image identifier to the second image identifier to determine if the first image identifier and the second image identifier are associated with different images in response to receiving the resent first image identifier at the second terminal, retrieving, at least partly in response to determining that the first image identifier and the second image identifier are associated with different images, the first image from memory at the second terminal in response to receiving the resent first image identifier; displaying in the chat history of the second terminal the first image in association with the received chat text from the first user, after retrieving the first image.