Method for email service in a visual voicemail system

• US 20070180032A1
• Filed: 01/27/2006
• Published: 08/02/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/27/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sbc Knowledge Ventures, L.P.
• Original Assignee: Sbc Knowledge Ventures, L.P.
• Inventors: Pearson, Larry
• Application Number:
  US11/342,210
• Publication Number:
  US 20070180032A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

A system and method are disclosed for an email service in a visual voicemail system (VVM) (110). A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include a VVM having a controller (102) coupled to a communication network (101) that manages operations of the VVM, populates (304) an end user profile as directed by an end user, records (306) a voicemail supplied by a calling party, stores the voicemail, populates (308) a “To” field of SMTP headers with a forwarding email address of the end user profile, populates (310) a “From” field of the SMTP headers with an email address of the VVM, populates (312) a “Reply to” field of the SMTP headers with a reply email address of the end user profile, generates (314) an email with the foregoing SMTP headers, a file corresponding to the voicemail, and instructions for disabling further forwarding of voicemails, and transmits (316) the email to the forwarding email address. Additional embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. A visual voicemail system (VVM), comprising:

a controller coupled to a communication network, wherein the controller manages operations of a voicemail service of the VVM, wherein the controller is programmed to;

populate an end user profile as directed by an end user, wherein the end user profile comprises a reply email address and a notification or forwarding email address;

record a voicemail supplied by a calling party;

store the voicemail;

populate a “

To”

field of SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol) headers with the notification or forwarding email address of the end user profile;

populate a “

From”

field of the SMTP headers with an email address associated with the VVM;

populate a “

Reply to”

field of the SMTP email headers with the reply email address of the end user profile;

generate an email with the foregoing SMTP headers, a voicemail notification message or an attached file corresponding to the voicemail, and instructions in the email for disabling voicemail notifications directed to the notification email address and for disabling forwarding of voicemails to the forwarding email address; and

transmit the email to a recipient associated with the notification or forwarding email address.

2. The VVM of claim 1, comprising a website application hosted by the VVM, or an interactive voice response system (IVR), wherein the controller is programmed to interact with the end user for populating the end user profile according to the website application, or the IVR.

3. The VVM of claim 1, wherein the instructions comprise a means for disabling notification of voicemails to the notification email address or forwarding of voicemails to the forwarding email address according to a third party email submitted to the VVM with one or more identifiers that direct the VVM to disable voicemail notification or voicemail forwarding.

4. The VVM of claim 3, wherein the one or more identifiers are included in the subject heading of the third party email.

5. The VVM of claim 2, wherein the instructions comprise a means for disabling notification of voicemails to the notification email address or forwarding of voicemails to the forwarding email address according to an HTTP hyperlink associated with the website application.

6. The VVM of claim 1, wherein the controller is programmed to:

process a third party email directed to the VVM; and

disable notification of voicemails to the notification email address or forwarding of voicemail to the forwarding email address upon detecting one or more identifiers in the third party email.

7. The VVM of claim 6, wherein the one or more identifiers comprise account information associated with the end user, and an instruction to disable voicemail notification or voicemail forwarding.

8. The VVM of claim 1, wherein the controller is programmed to:

receive a notification by way of an HTTP hyperlink associated with the website application;

disable voicemail notifications to the notification email address or voicemail forwarding to the forwarding email address upon detecting in the HTTP hyperlink account information associated with the end user and one or more identifiers.

9. The VVM of claim 1, wherein the controller is programmed to:

receive a third party email directed to the VVM;

determine from a TCP/IP connection an IP address associated with an originator of the third party email;

determine a domain name associated with the IP address;

compare the domain name of the IP address with a domain name of the third party email address;

if the domain names do not match, ignore and discard the email; and

if the domain names match, disable notifications directed to the notification email address or forwarding of voicemail to the forwarding email address upon detecting one or more identifiers in the third party email.

10. An email exchange server (EXS), comprising:

a controller that manages email exchanges in a communication network, wherein the controller is programmed to;

receive an email from a visual voicemail system (VVM) comprising a voicemail file, a forwarding email address in a “

To”

field of SMTP headers directed to a communication device, a VVM email address in a “

From”

field of the SMTP headers, and a reply email address in a “

Reply to”

field of the SMTP headers, wherein each of the forwarding and reply email addresses is derived from an end user profile associated with the VVM;

determine from a TCP/IP connection an IP address associated with an originator of the email;

determine a domain name associated with the IP address;

compare the domain name of the IP address with a domain name of the VVM email address;

if the domain names do not match, ignore and discard the email; and

if the domain names match, forward the email to the communication device according to the forwarding email address.

11. A communication device, comprising:

a controller that manages operations of a transceiver coupled to a communication network, wherein the controller is programmed to;

receive an email from a visual voicemail system (VVM) comprising a voicemail file, one or more instructions for disabling forwarding of voicemails to the communication device, a forwarding email address in a “

To”

field of email headers directed to the communication device, a VVM email address in a “

From”

field of the email headers, and a reply email address in a “

Reply to”

field of the email headers, wherein each of the forwarding and reply email addresses is derived from an end user profile associated with the VVM; and

receive from an end user of the communication device a request to reply to the email according to the reply email address, or disable forwarding of voicemails according to instructions supplied by the end user.

12. The communication device of claim 11, wherein the controller is programmed to generate and submit a second email with the reply email address inserted in the “

To”

field of the email headers of the second email in response to receiving from the end user the request to reply to the email.

13. The communication device of claim 11, wherein the one or more instructions comprise one or more identifiers for directing the VVM to disable voicemail forwarding, and wherein the controller is programmed to generate and submit to the VVM a second email that includes said identifiers in response to receiving from the end user the request to disable forwarding of voicemails.

14. The communication device of claim 13, wherein the one or more identifiers are included in the subject heading of the second email.

15. The communication device of claim 13, wherein the one or more instructions comprise a VVM email address, and wherein the controller is programmed to insert in a “

To”

field of the email headers of the second email the VVM email address.

16. The communication device of claim 13, wherein the one or more identifiers comprise account information associated with the end user, and an instruction to disable voicemail forwarding.

17. The communication device of claim 11, wherein the one or more instructions comprise a means for disabling forwarding of voicemails by way of a link of a website application hosted by the VVM, and wherein the controller is programmed to select the link of the website application.

18. The communication device of claim 17, wherein the controller is programmed to include in the link account information associated with the end user and one or more identifiers that direct the VVM to disable forwarding of voicemails to the forwarding address.

19. A computer-readable storage medium in a visual voicemail system (VVM), comprising computer instructions for:

recording a voicemail supplied by a calling party;

storing the voicemail;

populating a “

To”

field of SMTP headers with a forwarding email address of an end user profile;

populating a “

From”

field of the SMTP headers with an email address associated with the VVM;

populating a “

Reply to”

field of the SMTP email headers with a reply email address of the end user profile;

generating an email with the foregoing SMTP headers, and an attached file corresponding to the voicemail; and

transmitting the email to a recipient associated with the forwarding email address.

20. The storage medium of claim 19, comprising computer instructions for including in the email instructions for disabling forwarding of voicemails to the forwarding email address.

21. The storage medium of claim 19, comprising computer instructions for:

receiving a third party email directed to the VVM, or a notification by way of an HTTP hyperlink associated with a website application hosted by the VVM; and

disabling forwarding of voicemails to the forwarding email address upon detecting one or more identifiers and account information in the third party email, or one or more identifiers in the HTTP hyperlink.

22. The storage medium of claim 19, comprising computer instructions for presenting to an end user a graphical user interface (GUI) by way of a website application hosted by the VVM for entering the forwarding and reply email addresses of the end user profile.