Despite recent technical advances in traditional, wireless, and Internet-based communications systems, current technology does not yet efficiently support multimedia features such as real-time streaming video and video-clip swapping. In addition, existing systems do not effectively incorporate the abstractions and emotions that characterize everyday, natural interactions. To address these deficiencies, we propose a cost-effective system that incorporates multimedia information derived from the communicating parties' shared knowledge and experience without demanding high transmission bandwidth. The system exploits locally stored data about the participants' relationship as well as user-defined control parameters, current circumstances, and personal attributes such as mood and physical appearance.