SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATIC SOCIAL MESSAGING

1 . A method for automatic social messaging in a user communication device, comprising:

providing a user interface by which a user can define a plurality of trigger events, each trigger event in the plurality of trigger events being respectively associated with one of a plurality of different applications that are available for execution on the user communication device;

receiving, from a particular application within the plurality of applications that is executing on the user communication device, an indication of an occurrence of a particular predefined trigger event within the plurality of trigger events;

accessing a set of event parameters stored on the user communication device for the particular predefined trigger event, the set of event parameters including a set of recipients for a notification message associated with the particular predefined trigger event; and

automatically transmitting the notification message associated with the particular predefined trigger event to the set of recipients via a communications network.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of applications include one or more of:

a social networking application;

a location-based application;

a game application;

an application that provides alarm functionality;

an application that provides video watching functionality;

an application that provides music listening functionality; and

an application that provides event scheduling and/or event monitoring functionality.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of event parameters includes notification update information, the notification update information including an update interval.

4 . The method of claim 3 , further comprising:

automatically transmitting an updated notification message to the set of recipients each time the update interval expires.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of event parameters includes filter criteria for the particular predefined trigger event.

6 . The method of claim 5 , further comprising:

determining whether to transmit the notification message based on the filter criteria for the predefined trigger event.

7 . The method of claim 5 , further comprising:

determining the set of recipients based on the filter criteria for the particular predefined trigger event.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein automatically transmitting the notification message includes:

automatically transmitting the notification message to an account on a social networking server for forwarding to one or more recipients associated with the account on the social networking server.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving the indication of the occurrence of the event includes:

receiving from a location application executing on the communication device an indication of the occurrence of a location request trigger event.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving the indication of the occurrence of the event includes:

receiving from a location application executing on the communications device an indication of the occurrence of a direction request trigger event.

11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving the indication of the occurrence of the event includes:

receiving from an application executing on the communication device an indication of the occurrence of a function activation by a user of the communications device.

12 . A user communication device, comprising:

a memory configured to store software;

a processor configured to execute the software to:

provide a user interface by which a user can define a plurality of trigger events, each trigger event in the plurality of trigger events being respectively associated with one of a plurality of different applications that are available for execution on the user communication device;

receive, from a particular application within the plurality of applications that is executing on the user communication device, an indication of an occurrence of a particular predefined trigger event within the plurality of trigger events;

access a set of event parameters stored in the memory for the particular predefined trigger event, the set of event parameters including a set of recipients for a notification message associated with the particular predefined trigger event; and

automatically transmit the notification message associated with the particular predefined trigger event to the set of recipients via a communications network.

13 . The user communication device of claim 12 , wherein the plurality of applications include one or more of:

a social networking application;

a location-based application;

a game application;

an application that provides alarm functionality;

an application that provides video watching functionality;

an application that provides music listening functionality; and

an application that provides event scheduling and/or event monitoring functionality.

14 . The user communication device of claim 12 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

automatically transmit an updated notification message each time an update interval associated with the particular predefined trigger event expires.

15 . The user communication device of claim 12 , wherein the user communication device is a multi-media phone system.

16 . The user communication device of claim 12 , wherein the particular predefined trigger event is activation of an application on the multi-media phone system.

17 . A computer program product comprising a computer useable storage device having computer-executable instructions stored thereon, that, when executed by a processor of a user communication device, cause the user communication device to perform a method comprising:

providing a user interface by which a user can define a plurality of trigger events, each trigger event in the plurality of trigger events being respectively associated with one of a plurality of different applications that are available for execution on the user communication device;

receiving, from a particular application within the plurality of applications that is executing on the user communication device, an indication of an occurrence of a particular predefined trigger event within the plurality of trigger events;

accessing a set of event parameters stored on the user communication device for the particular predefined trigger event, the set of event parameters including a set of recipients for a notification message associated with the particular predefined trigger event; and

automatically transmitting the notification message associated with the particular predefined trigger event to the set of recipients via a communications network.

18 . The computer program product of claim 17 , wherein the method further comprises:

automatically transmitting an updated notification message to the set of recipients each time an update interval for the particular predefined trigger event expires.

19 . The computer program product of claim 18 , wherein the method further comprises:

determining whether to transmit the notification message based on filter criteria associated with the particular predefined trigger event.

20 . The computer program product of claim 18 , wherein automatically transmitting the notification message includes:

automatically transmitting the notification message to an account on a social networking server for forwarding to one or more recipients associated with the account on the social networking server.