IMS-based services let users communicate simultaneously in a variety of different ways, including voice, text, pictures and video, or any combination of these. IMS will help provide a seamless, consistent experience across multiple access technologies, devices and locations, whether wireline or wireless; narrowband, wideband or broadband; business or personal. IMS will also let subscribers manage their accessibility – or "presence" – better, so that they can control how, where, when and by whom they can be reached.

One early example of an IMS-based service, of which "presence" is an integral part, is the Push-to-Talk-over-Cellular (PoC) standard service. This enables users to get in touch with individuals or predefined groups of users at the push of a button on their mobile handsets. The implementation of IMS-based PoC-standard push to talk will also allow a wider range of handsets to be used and reduce restrictions on available contacts (through interoperability).

Another interesting application that will drive revenue in the enterprise market is IP Centrex, also known as a virtual hosted PBX solution. The combination of IMS multimedia services with IP Centrex can create advanced collaboration services suitable for enterprises of all sizes. The combined solution will host a complete set of personal and group services, with the addition of multimedia support such as video communication, conferencing, collaboration, presence management, instant messaging, integration with office Personal Information Management (PIM) systems and support for remote workers.