Handheld electronic device and associated method providing availability data in a messaging environment

摘要

An improved handheld electronic device and an associated method are provided in which enhanced information regarding an “availability” of a user of a handheld electronic device is provided to another electronic device in a messaging environment. Such availability data provides step-wise indications of the relative availabilities of one or more users of electronic devices in a messaging environment. The step-wise indications can, for instance, range from an availability level of “currently active” to several levels of nonavailability. The device and method can be incorporated into an existing messaging environment.

主权项

1. A method of enabling communication of availability data between a first device and a second device, the first device being a handheld electronic device having a wireless communication capability, the second device being an electronic device, the first device and the second device being capable of communicating with one another in a first communications band using a messaging service, the method comprising:
communicating a message indicating capability of sending availability data between the first device and the second device in the first communications band using the messaging service; determining, based on communicating the message, a second communications band between the first device and the second device for exchanging the availability data; and the first device sending, based on the determining the second communications band, availability data to the second device over the second communications band while enabling communications using the messaging service in the first communications band.