Abstract: A method, a Web Service Gateway (WSG) for presence, and a presence server that responsive to a request for presence information received from a watcher, filters the presence information of a plurality of presence entities based on one or more criteria received from the watcher in the request, and respond back to the watcher only with the presence information of those presence entities that match the desired criteria. The request may comprise identification of a plurality of presence entities. In a first variant, the WSG for presence, which interfaces with the presence server, obtains the presence information of the plurality of presence entities from the server, filters them, and returns to the watcher the presence information of the presence entities matching the criteria. In a second variant, the presence server receives the request, performs the filtering, and responds to the watcher with the presence information of the matching presence entities.