The present disclosure generally relates to lists or other groupings of telephone contacts. A telephone contact is a data entry that correlates information that identifies a person, business, or other such entity (such as a name of a person or business) for a user, with information for contacting the entity by telephone (e.g., a classic 7 or 10-digit dialed telephone number, an internet protocol (IP) address that is used to make a voice connection, or other identifier for making a connection using a telephone). For example, an entry in a list of telephone contacts for “Alice” can be correlated with a ten-digit telephone number for Alice. The telephone contact can also include additional information, such as an e-mail address, an image of the person or business (e.g., a logo for a business), address information for the entity, and other information for the entity.
A telephone device (e.g., landline telephone, mobile telephone, etc.) can be configured to use a list of telephone contacts for a variety of tasks. For instance, a telephone device can be configured to place telephone calls using a list of telephone contacts, to send text messages using a list of telephone contacts, etc. Expanding upon the example above regarding Alice, a user can cause a telephone to initiate a telephone call to Alice at the correlated ten-digit telephone number by selecting the entry for Alice from the list of telephone contacts.
A variety of telephone devices can store lists of telephone contact locally on the telephone device. For example, a mobile telephone (e.g., a cell telephone) can store list of telephone contacts locally on the mobile telephone. A user of the mobile telephone can maintain the locally stored list of telephone contacts by adding, deleting, and modifying entries.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds