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 fr om an availability level of "currently active" to several levels of nonavailability. The device and method can be incorporated into an existing messaging environment.