Enhancements to unified communications and messaging systems

Abstract

The invention relates to a system and method of handling a plurality of communications between parties. Novel approaches to the presentation, storage and creation of both real-time and “store and forward” interactions are presented. These make it easier for a user of the system to read and understand what is being communicated, by whom and to whom. This extends beyond the presentation of a single message to sets of related messages. By combining recording of real-time interactions with the presentation and handling of inherently “store and forward” mechanisms, users find it easier to mix and match communication methods optimally for the task at hand.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computer-implemented method, comprising:
 identifying address data for an interaction, the address data defining a plurality of participant addresses for a plurality of participants in the interaction;   identifying a plurality of alternate communication media, each alternate communication medium being associated with a plurality of participants in the interaction whether or not the alternate communication medium has already been used within the interaction;   displaying a representation of the interaction, the representation including a plurality of communication icons, each communication icon corresponding to a specific alternate communication medium through which at least a subset of the participant addresses may be contacted; and   displaying an indication of which of the participant addresses may be contacted via each such alternate communication medium.   
     
     
         2 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein a display preference is one of a preference defined by an initiator, a cost preference based on a cost of using each alternate communication medium, a speed of response preference, and a coverage preference based on a number of the participants that can be reached over each alternate communication medium. 
     
     
         3 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the interaction is a constituent interaction in an interaction thread, and further comprising:
 automatically recording an alternate communication established over a corresponding alternate communication medium;   identifying the recorded communication as a subsequent constituent interaction in the interaction thread; and   displaying the interaction and the recorded communication as two separate constituent interactions in the interaction thread.   
     
     
         4 . The computer-implement method of  claim 3 , wherein the alternate communication is one of a telephone communication or an instant messaging communication. 
     
     
         5 . A computing device, comprising:
 a display subsystem including a display device;   a processing subsystem in data communication with the display subsystem;   a communication subsystem operable to communicate over a plurality of communication media;   a data store in data communication with the processing subsystem and storing instructions executable by the processing subsystem that upon such execution cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:   identifying address data for an interaction, the address data defining a plurality of participant addresses for a plurality of participants in the interaction;   identifying alternate communication media, each alternate communication medium being associated with at least two participants in the interaction whether or not the medium has already been used within the interaction;   displaying a representation of the interaction, the representation including a plurality of communication icons, each communication icon corresponding to an alternate communication medium through which at least a subset of the participant addresses may be contacted; and   displaying an indication of which of the participant addresses may be contacted via each such alternate communication medium.   
     
     
         6 . The computing device of  claim 5 , wherein the computing device is a mobile communication device.