Tools and techniques are described for storage and expedited retrieval of messages and responses in multi-tasking environments. Methods provided by these tools may establish active communications with a first contact, and then received indications of secondary communications involving a second contact. These methods may then present user interfaces (UIs) that include representations of at least the secondary communications. Through the UIs, the methods may receive a selection of one of the secondary communications for an expedited response, and may receive input from the user that provides the expedited response to the secondary communication, while maintaining the active communication in an active state. These methods may provide the expedited response to the secondary communication, based upon the input received from the user.