Experiments on mobile context-aware instant messaging

In a ubiquitous context-aware system, the context of the users can be employed in managing communications. Instant messaging systems utilize awareness in communication and are commonly used to coordinate workplace collaborations. We describe a context-aware instant messaging prototype that aims to reduce unsuccessful communication attempts by updating the availability of the users automatically. The system utilizes the contexts of both the communication initiator and receiver to infer the availability of the receiver. We strive to identify the needs for, and further requirements of such systems by analyzing the results of a week-long user test period, conducted in an everyday working environment. The users generally find automatic availability updating with awareness information to improve the value of instant messaging in collaborative work. Moreover, we clarify and generalize the terminology related to context-aware instant messaging.