INDICATING STATUS USING A STANDALONE ICON

摘要

A stand-alone icon (i.e., an icon that is not part of an application interface) is provided to facilitate communications across a network between users of at least one communications program. The icon represents a contact or a set of contacts. Status information regarding the contact or set of contacts is received and displayed using the icon or in response to an operation performed on the icon. The icon additionally may provide an interface for performing actions related to the contact or set of contacts. The actions may generally include, for example, retrieving profile information about the contact, setting an alert to indicate that the contact's network/login status (e.g., login, logout, or idle) has changed, or performing communications with the contact.

主权项

1. A method of facilitating communications across a network between users of at least one communications program, the method comprising:
providing a file that represents a contact or set of contacts of a user in the communications program, wherein an operating system represents the file as a stand-alone graphical object; receiving status information regarding the contact or set of contacts from the communications program; and updating visual representation of the stand-alone graphical object in response to the received status information, such that the visual representation of the graphical object conveys the status information of the contact or set of contacts.