Patent ID: 7606866

Claim:
A real-time communications system comprising: a plurality of distributed communications devices communicating with each other over a network; an instant messenger on two or more of said plurality of distributed communications devices, each said instant messenger on said two or more providing user status information from instant messengers on one or more others other of said two or more of said plurality of distributed communications devices; and a Messenger Assistant on each of said two or more of said plurality of distributed communications devices, said Messenger Assistant interfacing with personal information manager (PIM) data for a respective user, said Messenger Assistant providing user provided status updates to, and retrieving user status updates from, said PIM data for said respective user and providing said user status updates to a corresponding said instant messenger, wherein said user status is user presence and availability status for a user of a respective communications device, said instant messenger on said respective communications device automatically indicating availability state of said user to other instant messengers in real-time.