Locally storing voicemails and communicating them to other wireless mobile devices

• US 8,472,589 B1
• Filed: 09/28/2007
• Issued: 06/25/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile Innovations LLC (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Green, Douglas, Townsend, Arthur D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Gauthier, Gerald
• Application Number:
  US11/864,237
• Time in Patent Office: 2,097 Days
• Field of Search: 340/12.22, 379/67.1, 379/88.17, 379/88.18, 379/142.04, 379/142.06, 379/210.01, 379/225, 379/88.05, 379/88.12, 379/88.23, 379/202.01, 379/209.01, 455/405, 455/412.1, 455/413, 717/168, 370/352
• US Class Current: 379/88.17
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/6418 Hybrid transport
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6505 storing speech in digital form
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/533 Voice mail systems

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention provide ways to locally store and deliver voicemail messages on personal communication devices. An illustrative method includes initiating a call to a recipient'"'"'s device, receiving an indication the call cannot be established, prompting the user to leave a voicemail, storing the voicemail locally on the communications device, and sending the voicemail to the recipient'"'"'s device.

Claims

1. One or more computer-readable media having computer-useable instructions embodied thereon for performing a method of communicating a voicemail message from a calling device, the method comprising:

attempting to initiate a call to a target device;

receiving an indication that the call is rejected by the target device incident to attempting to initiate the call;

automatically prompting a user to leave a voicemail message that is to ultimately be delivered to the target device;

locally storing the voicemail message on the calling device;

establishing a first communications pathway with the target device;

establishing a first session with the target device, wherein the first session utilizes the first communications pathway;

communicating a first portion of the voicemail message to the target device by way of the first session;

establishing a second communications pathway with the target device;

establishing a second session with the target device, wherein the second session utilizes the second communications pathway; and

communicating a second portion of the voicemail message to the target device by way of the second session.

2. The media of claim 1, wherein attempting to initiate a call to a target device includes signaling the target device with a session initiated protocol (SIP) formatted message.

3. The media of claim 1, wherein establishing the first and the second communications pathways includes one or more of:

establishing a pathway directly between the calling device and the target device; and

establishing a pathway that includes an intermediary device between the calling device and the target device.

4. The media of claim 1, wherein establishing the first and the second communications pathways includes establishing the second communications pathway after an attempt to communicate with the target device has completely ended.

5. The media of claim 1, wherein establishing the first and the second communications pathways includes establishing a first and a second data session between the calling device and the target device.

6. The media of claim 1, wherein communicating one or more of the first portion or the second portion of the voicemail message to the target device includes sending the voicemail message via a peer-to-peer (P2P) network.

7. The media of claim 1, wherein the calling device is a session initiated protocol (SIP) compatible device.

8. The media of claim 1, further comprising providing a message-waiting indicator to the target device, thereby indicating that a new voicemail is ready for review, the new voicemail being locally stored on the target device.

9. The media of claim 1, further comprising providing a delivery-confirmation indication to the calling device that indicates that the voicemail message was delivered to the target device.

10. One or more computer-readable media having computer-useable instructions embodied thereon for performing a method of communicating a voicemail message to a target device, the method comprising:

receiving an indication that a caller is one of a set of identified callers who are not to be allowed to connect to the target device at that particular time;

receiving a first request to establish a first data-communications pathway with the target device that can be used to communicate data from a calling device to the target device;

accepting the first request;

receiving a first portion of a voicemail message stored locally on the calling device by way of the first data-communications pathway;

locally storing the first portion of the voicemail message on the target device;

receiving a second request to establish a second data-communications pathway with the target device that can be used to communicate data from the calling device to the target device;

accepting the second request;

receiving a second portion of the voicemail message stored locally on the calling device by way of the second data-communications pathway; and

locally storing the second portion of the voicemail message on the target device.

11. The media of claim 10, wherein a request to establish the first and a second data-communications pathways with the target device includes a session initiated protocol (SIP) formatted message.

12. The media of claim 10, wherein attempting to initiate a call to target device includes signaling the target device with a session initiated protocol (SIP) formatted message.

13. The media of claim 10, wherein the calling device is a session initiated protocol (SIP) compatible device.

14. The media of claim 10, further comprising providing a notification on the target device that indicates that the voicemail message is ready to be at least partially reviewed.

15. The media of claim 10, further comprising providing a confirmation message to the calling device that the voicemail message was successfully delivered to the target device.

16. The media of claim 10, further comprising facilitating playback of the locally stored voicemail message.

17. One or more computer-readable media having computer-useable instructions embodied thereon for performing a method of communicating a locally stored voicemail message from an intermediary device, the method comprising:

receiving an attempt to initiate a call from a calling device;

receiving an indication that the call cannot be established with a target device;

communicating the indication to the calling device;

receiving a first request to establish a first communications pathway with the calling device;

accepting the first request;

receiving a first portion of a locally stored voicemail message from the calling device by way of the first communications pathway;

storing the first portion of the locally stored voicemail message from the calling device;

receiving a second request to establish a second communications pathway with the calling device;

accepting the second request;

receiving a second portion of the locally stored voicemail message from the calling device by way of the second communications pathway;

storing the second portion of the locally stored voicemail message from the calling device;

sending a third request to establish a third communications pathway to the target device; and

communicating the entire locally stored voicemail message to the target device.

18. The media of claim 17, wherein one or more of the first, second or third communications pathways are established by utilizing a peer-to-peer (P2P) protocol.

19. One or more computer-readable media having computer-useable instructions embodied thereon for performing a method of communicating a voicemail message from a first voicemail client, the method comprising:

sending a first request to establish a first communications session with a second voicemail client, the request stemming from an inability to set up a call between a first calling device and a second calling device;

receiving a first response that indicates an inability to establish the first communications session;

establishing a second communications session between the first voicemail client and the second voicemail client, said second voicemail client residing on said second calling device; and

communicating a first portion of the voicemail message to the second voicemail client, the voicemail message being locally stored on the first calling device that attempted to set up the call between the first calling device and the second calling device; and

locally storing the entire voicemail communicated from the first voicemail client on the second calling device.