Providing voice messages to an intended recipient
First Claim
1. At a voice message provider, a method of delivering voice messages to an intended recipient, comprising:
- receiving a voice message from a sender directed to an intended recipient;
storing the voice message in a database;
assigning a retrieval telephone number to the received voice message;
correlating the retrieval telephone number and the received voice message to one or more recipient telephone numbers for identifying the intended recipient;
preparing a notification message including at least the retrieval telephone number assigned to the received voice message; and
sending the notification message to the intended recipient that, when selected by the intended recipient, causes the voice message to be retrieved from the database.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A voice messaging system associates each stored voice message with a unique combination of a retrieval telephone number and a recipient identifier such as a recipient telephone number. When a voice message is received, the system sends a notification message containing the retrieval telephone number to the intended recipient. Upon receiving the notification message, the intended recipient can access the voice message directly by calling the message retrieval telephone number. The system detects the recipient identifier, for example, via caller identification of the recipient telephone number. Using the unique combination of retrieval telephone number and recipient identifier, the system retrieves and plays the appropriate voice message. In one embodiment, the access point for retrieving messages is different from the access point for leaving voice messages.
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Citations
21 Claims
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1. At a voice message provider, a method of delivering voice messages to an intended recipient, comprising:
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receiving a voice message from a sender directed to an intended recipient; storing the voice message in a database; assigning a retrieval telephone number to the received voice message; correlating the retrieval telephone number and the received voice message to one or more recipient telephone numbers for identifying the intended recipient; preparing a notification message including at least the retrieval telephone number assigned to the received voice message; and sending the notification message to the intended recipient that, when selected by the intended recipient, causes the voice message to be retrieved from the database. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. At a voice message provider, a method of delivering voice messages to an intended recipient, comprising:
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receiving a voice message from a sender directed to an intended recipient; storing the voice message in a database; assigning a retrieval telephone number to the received voice message; correlating the retrieval telephone number and the received voice message to one or more recipient identifiers for identifying the intended recipient, wherein the combination of the retrieval telephone number and the recipient identifier uniquely identifies the received voice message among a set of pending received voice messages; preparing a notification message including at least the retrieval telephone number assigned to the received voice message; and sending the notification message to the intended recipient that, when selected by the intended recipient, causes the voice message to be retrieved from the database. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12)
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13. At a voice message provider, a method of delivering voice messages to an intended recipient, comprising:
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receiving a voice message from a sender directed to an intended recipient; storing the voice message in a database; assigning a retrieval telephone number to the received voice message; correlating the retrieval telephone number and the received voice message to one or more recipient identifiers for identifying the intended recipient; preparing a notification message including at least the retrieval telephone number assigned to the received voice message; sending the notification message to the intended recipient; receiving a telephone call from the intended recipient, the telephone call being initiated by the intended recipient dialing the retrieval telephone number included in the notification message; identifying the voice message correlated to the retrieval telephone number and to the recipient identifier; and sending the voice message to the intended recipient. - View Dependent Claims (14)
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15. At a device of an intended recipient, the device being associated with a telephone number, a method of retrieving voice messages, comprising:
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receiving a notification message from a voice message provider, the notification message notifying an intended recipient of a voice message stored at a central storage location and addressed to the intended recipient, the notification message including a retrieval telephone number, wherein the combination of the retrieval telephone number and the telephone number associated with the device uniquely identifies the received voice message among a set of pending received voice messages; receiving input from the intended recipient indicating that the voice message is to be retrieved; calling the retrieval telephone number included in the voice message to access the voice message. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A voice messaging system, comprising:
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a first access point configured to receive a voice message from a voice message sender directed to an intended recipient; a storage device configured to store the voice message received from the voice message sender; an index configured to correlate a message retrieval telephone number to the voice message and to one or more recipient telephone numbers, wherein each combination of a given message retrieval telephone number and recipient telephone number is unique; a notification module configured to send a notification message to the intended recipient, wherein the notification message includes the message retrieval number correlated to the voice message, that when dialed, enables the intended recipient to access the voice message; and a second access point configured to receive a call initiated by the intended recipient by dialing the message retrieval telephone number contained in the notification message, and further configured to detect the recipient telephone number and to return the voice message correlated with the recipient telephone number and the retrieval message retrieval telephone number. - View Dependent Claims (21)
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Specification