1. A method executing on a processor of a computing device for displaying recent items, comprising: determining a recent item using the processor from recently accessed items; wherein the recently accessed items include recent incoming phone calls; recent outgoing phone calls; recently received electronic messages; recent outgoing electronic messages; recent access of contacts; recent incoming SMS messages; recent outgoing SMS messages; recent incoming IM messages; recent outgoing IM messages; recently accessed files and recently accessed applications; replacing the recent item with a contact maintained in a contact list when recent item has an associated contact within a contact list; placing the recent item in the recent items list that includes all recently accessed items; generating the recent items list such that recent items associated with a contact are coalesced and shown as only one item; and recent items related to a pinned contact are listed higher than items from a standard contact; and displaying the recent items list on a display; displaying non-recently accessed contacts after the displayed list of recent items; and in response to selection of a recent item, displaying a context menu, wherein an option in the context menu depends on whether a selected recent item is replaced by a contact.