A presence system is provided with a communications device associated with a presentity that is capable of displaying a respective presentity presence state indicating a respective availability of the presentity as provided by a presence system to each contact on a contact list of the presentity. The communications device includes a presence user client communicatively coupled to the presence system to receive presence information associated with the presentity, in which the presence information includes the respective presentity presence states for the contacts on the contact list, and a display for displaying the contact list and a respective representation of the respective presentity presence state for each contact on the contact list.