UNIFIED USER INTERFACE FOR INSTANT MESSAGING AND EMAIL

The present invention relates to a unified user interface for instant messaging and electronic mail. In one aspect, a single user interface is provided to allow a user to view email and instant messages. Instant messages and email are received and displayed within a common window within a single application. In one aspect, an instant messaging input field is associated with an email message. For example, in one aspect, when a user associated with an email message is available for instant messaging, an input field appears in a preview pane for the email message. In another aspect of the present invention, instant messages may be managed like an email, e.g. filed, printed, forwarded, stored in folders, etc. For example, in one aspect, a transcript of an instant messaging session may be forwarded as an email.