International Business Machines Corporation

Wing Kong Yip

Hon Chung Tang

Ka Chun Wong

Wai Man Lee

Ho Yin Lee

A method for sending a plurality of alternate contact information associated with an online communication system. The method may include receiving an electronic message associated with the online communication system, wherein the electronic message is addressed to a recipient from a sender. The method may also include identifying a recipient inbox using a plurality of directory information associated with the received electronic message. The method may further include determining the identified recipient inbox satisfies at least one of a plurality of alternate contact criteria. The method may also include transmitting a plurality of alternate recipient contact information within a simple message transfer protocol (SMTP) response to the sender based on the plurality of determined alternate contact criteria being satisfied.

Handling various scenarios where an email recipient is not available

A method to enable a participant within a plurality of participants in an online group conversation to add at least one additional participant as an observer to the online group conversation is provided. The method may include receiving a request to add the observer to the online group conversation. The method may include adding the observer to the online group conversation. The method may also include detecting a message being sent from the added observer. The method may include redirecting the detected message to the enabled participant. The method may also include displaying the redirected message in a user interface (UI) to the enabled participant. The method may further include detecting a modification or a deletion of the displayed redirected message by the enabled participant. The method may include sending the message to the plurality of participants, whereby the sent message is in an original format or a modified format.

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Hong Kong, China

Wing Kong Yip