A system, apparatus, and method are directed to managing automatic sign in
to an Instant Messaging (IM) session on mobile device from another
computing device, such as a personal computer (PC), over a network. The
end-user of the PC may provide an account identifier, password, and the
like, and in response, receive a cookie, that may further include the
account identifier, encoded string, and the like. The end-user may then
request initiation of the IM session using a toolbar selection, a script,
applet, form, web page selection, and the like. As part of the request,
the cookie may be provided to the server. If the request is authenticated
based, in part, on the cookie information, the server uses the account
identifier to locate an associated a mobile device identifier. The mobile
device identifier is employed to log the end-user automatically into the
mobile device.