Creating a communication group

摘要

This document describes tools capable of enabling users of mobile communication devices to create communication groups quickly and easily. With such a communication group a user may call, text, or instant message all persons in the group at once by selecting the communication group rather than each person in the group. In one embodiment, the tools enable a user to build a communication group by dragging and dropping indicators for persons he or she knows from one area of a screen into another area. In another embodiment, the tools automatically collect persons from those that the user knows based on one or more criteria. The user may then easily create a communication group of those collected persons, such as by tapping on an area of a mobile device's display.

主权项

1. A mobile communication and computing device comprising:
a display; a processing system to implement a grouping module at least partially in hardware with one or more computer processors, the grouping module configured to cause the mobile communication and computing device to perform operations including:
receiving selection of a first entity and a second entity to include in a collection, the first entity and the second entity displayed at least in part on a first area of the display;enabling selection at a second area of the display of the mobile communication and computing device either after an act of indicating that the second entity is successfully added to the collection or at some later time after one or more additional entities are successfully added to the collection, to create a communication group having the entities of the collection;receiving selection to create the communication group;creating the communication group at the mobile communication and computing device, the communication group enabling communication from the mobile communication and computing device to all of the entities of the communication group at once; and displaying an alert responsive to determining that one or more entities of the communication group have reached a distance in proximity to the mobile communication and computing device that created the communication group.