Offline voicemail

• US 9,479,646 B2
• Filed: 11/06/2014
• Issued: 10/25/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Seetharaman, Shivakumar, Higashi, Michael K., Nalliah, Selvaraj, Flint, Joseph T., Zafar, Salman, Balducci, Juan V. Esteve
• Primary Examiner(s): Huynh, Van D
• Application Number:
  US14/534,795
• Publication Number:
  US 20150065096A1
• Time in Patent Office: 719 Days
• Field of Search: 379 8811- 8812, 379/88.14
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72433 for voice messaging, e.g. dictaphones for answering incoming calls H04M1/64
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/60 Medium conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/253 where a visual mode is used instead of a voice mode
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/4509 Unified messaging with single point of access to voicemail and other mail or messaging systems unified messaging in packet switching networks H04L51/56
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/533 Voice mail systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/53333 Message receiving aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/537 Arrangements for indicating the presence of a recorded message , whereby the presence information might include a preview or summary of the message
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]

Abstract

A method for accessing offline voicemail messages within a mobile messaging application may be provided. First, a voice mail message may be received and the voicemail message may be transcribed to text. Next, the voicemail message and the text transcription may be stored. The recipient may then be presented with a list of voicemail messages and the voicemail message may be retrieved in response to the recipient. The recipient may read or listen to the voicemail message or both. The recipient may also annotate the voicemail message.

Claims

1. A mobile device for accessing voicemail messages, the mobile device comprising:

a memory having computer-readable instructions stored thereon; and

a processing unit coupled to the memory, wherein upon execution of the computer-readable instructions, the mobile device is operative to;

receive a voicemail message generated from a call;

display a text transcription of the voicemail message, wherein unrecognized voicemail speech is displayed differently than recognized voicemail speech in the text transcription; and

provide an audio recording of the voicemail message upon activation of a control.

2. The mobile device of claim 1, further operative to:

display a progress bar associated with the audio recording.

3. The mobile device of claim 1, further operative to:

display a duration of the audio recording.

4. The mobile device of claim 1, further operative to:

receive a selection of a point in the transcribed voicemail message, wherein the selected point is not a first word of the transcribed voicemail message; and

play the voicemail message from the selected point in the transcribed voicemail message.

5. The mobile device of claim 4, wherein an indicator on the progress bar corresponds with the selected point in the transcribed voicemail message.

6. The mobile device of claim 1, further operative to:

play the audio recording through an external speaker.

7. The mobile device of claim 1, further operative to:

display a list of voicemail messages; and

display one or more actions for selection.

8. The mobile device of claim 7, the one or more actions for selection comprising one or more of:

play a voicemail message;

delete a voicemail message;

reply to a voicemail message;

flag a voicemail message; and

call a phone number associated with a voicemail message.

9. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein displaying unrecognized voicemail speech differently from recognized voicemail speech comprises modifying text corresponding to unrecognized voicemail speech based on one or more of a font, a color, or a size of the text.

10. A mobile device that stores a set of instructions which when executed causes the mobile device to perform a method, comprising:

receiving a notification of a voicemail message generated from a call;

displaying a text transcription of the voicemail message, wherein unrecognized voicemail speech is displayed differently than recognized voicemail speech in the text transcription; and

playing an audio recording of the voicemail message upon receiving a selection of a play control.

11. The mobile device of claim 10, further performing the method of:

displaying a progress bar associated with the audio recording.

12. The mobile device of claim 10, further performing the method of:

displaying a duration of the audio recording.

13. The mobile device of claim 10, further performing the method of:

receiving a selection of a point in the transcribed voicemail message, wherein the selected point is not a first word of the transcribed voicemail message; and

playing the voicemail message from the selected point in the transcribed voicemail message.

14. The mobile device of claim 13, wherein an indicator on the progress bar corresponds with the selected point in the transcribed voicemail message.

15. The mobile device of claim 10, further performing the method of:

displaying a list of voicemail messages; and

displaying one or more actions for selection.

16. The mobile device of claim 15, the one or more actions for selection comprising:

playing a voicemail message;

deleting a voicemail message;

replying to a voicemail message;

flagging a voicemail message; and

calling a phone number associated with a voicemail message.

17. The mobile device of claim 10, further performing the method of:

displaying a notification of at least one missed call.

18. A method for accessing voicemail messages executed on a mobile device, the method comprising:

receiving a voicemail message generated from a call;

displaying a text transcription of the voicemail message, wherein unrecognized voicemail speech is displayed differently than recognized voicemail speech in the text transcription; and

playing an audio recording of the voicemail message upon receiving a selection of a play control.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

displaying a progress bar associated with the audio recording.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein displaying the text corresponding to unrecognized voicemail speech differently comprises modifying one or more of a font, a color or a size of the text.