US Patent 7571190 Instant message broadcasting and presence enabling from electronic mail application

A system and method for broadcasting a message to multiple contacts in a list of contacts provided by an electronic mail application and furnishing presence information for contacts in the list of contacts provided by the electronic mail application includes an interface for adding functionality to an electronic mail application which supports instance messaging (IM). The interface interfaces with a distributed presence enabled communication platform for providing presence information regarding contact availability. The electronic mail application utilizes the interface for displaying the contact presence information and broadcasting a message to multiple contacts in the list of contacts.