Methods and systems of presenting a quick list of contacts to an instant messaging user are disclosed. A set of contacts is identified. From the set of contacts, a first subset is selected based on first predefined criteria and a second subset is selected from second predefined criteria. The first and second predefined criteria may include contact interaction criteria, user activity criteria, and connectedness criteria. From the first and second subsets, one or more lists of contacts are generated. The one or more lists may be displayed in a display region of an instant messaging application.