Presence information

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Example of presence information

In electronic telecommunications, presence information is information that contains the possibility and readiness of a potential communication partner (for example another user for a conversation). The client of a user touted its status to a presence server that manages this and more widespread if necessary.

Presence information is an important component and the most important innovation driver in today's instant messaging and VoIP services.

Presence status

The client of a user can publish a presence status in order to publish the current communication status of the user. This status publication informs others who communicate with the user about his availability and willingness to communicate. Nowadays the presence status is most often displayed as a small icon in instant messenger clients, usually different icons for different statuses.

The dial tone in combination with the busy tone in the classic telephone network is actually a presence status, even if it is not mentioned in this context.

Common status variants that can be found in almost every instant messaging client are “Available for chat”, “Present”, “Away”, “Busy”, “Do not disturb”. In addition, additional attributes such as mood, location or free text fields are also available in some instant messenger clients.

privacy

Presence information is extremely sensitive and in real systems it would be appropriate to limit the presence information to a closed group of users. Outside of working hours, for example, it is interesting for employees not to inform their colleagues about everything. A minimal version of this is already implemented in many instant messaging programs and is expressed in the "invisible" status, which is only visible to certain selected contacts.

literature