Contact list availability prioritization

#Field of the Invention

#The present invention relates to contact list management for mobile contacts and more particularly to contact list management according to prospective contact reachability.

#Description of the Related Art

#The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention. The embodiments illustrated herein are presently preferred, it being understood, however, that the invention is not limited to the precise arrangements and instrumentalities shown, wherein:

#FIG. 1 is a pictorial illustration of a process for contact list prioritization according to predicted reachability;

#FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of a data processing system configured for contact list prioritization according to predicted reachability; and,

#Embodiments of the invention provide for contact list prioritization according to predicted reachability. In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, different mobile phones in a cellular network can track usage data of the mobile phone and the usage data can be processed into a reachability value. The reachability value in turn can be provided to the cellular network and consumed by different contact lists of other mobile phones in the cellular network in order to rank contacts in the contact lists in order to sort the ranked contacts according to likely reachability. In this way, a mobile phone user seeking to contact a person in the contact list can select a person most likely to be reached.

#In further illustration, FIG. 1 pictorially shows a process for contact list prioritization according to predicted reachability. As shown in FIG. 1, a mobile telephone 110 can be configured with contact list management logic 120. The logic 120 can compute the reachability of a person associated with the mobile telephone 110 by computing a reachability value 140 from use data 130 of the mobile telephone 110 such as accelerometer data, last time of use data or frequency of use data, messaging data, or social media data. Thereafter, the reachability value 140 can be provided to contact list management logic 120 in a different mobile telephone 110 with which the logic 120 can sort contacts in a contact list 150 according to the reachability value 140. Further, each contact in the contact list 150 can include a reachability icon 160 indicating a reachability of the contact according to the reachability value 140 for a mobile telephone 110 of the contact.

#Of note, the reachability value 140 can be computed so as to provide a numerical indication of the contemporaneous reachability of a contact based upon use data 130 of a corresponding mobile telephone 110. For example, the use data 130 can include accelerometer data of the mobile telephone 110 indicating the movement of a contact holding the mobile telephone 110, time of use data indicating that the mobile telephone is either frequently used, or more recently used, messaging data indicating that the contact had transmitted messages using a messaging application in the mobile telephone 110, or social media data indicating that the contact through the mobile telephone 110 had posted contact to a social network. The reachability value 140 can be computed within the mobile telephone 110 and transmitted to other mobile telephones 110 or to a central server, or the use data 130 can be transmitted to other mobile telephones 110 or to a central server from which the reachability value 140 can be computed.