Automatic initiation of communications

A selection of a contact is received from a user. This contact is within a content item, such as a word processing document, a hypertext document, an e-mail, a spreadsheet, or an electronic presentation. The user receives an indication of one or more connection channels associated with the contact and the user makes a selection a designated connection channel from the one or more connection channels. Upon this selection a device (such as a portable communications device) is instructed to establish communications across the designated connection channel. This connection channel may be, for example, a telephone number, an SMS number, an e-mail address, or a uniform resource locator (URL).