Offline voicemail

• US 8,942,359 B2
• Filed: 02/21/2014
• Issued: 01/27/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Seetharaman, Shivakumar, Higashi, Michael K., Nalliah, Selvaraj, Flint, Joseph T., Zafar, Salman, Balducci, Juan V. Esteve
• Primary Examiner(s): Islam, Mohammad
• Application Number:
  US14/186,908
• Publication Number:
  US 20140169538A1
• Time in Patent Office: 340 Days
• Field of Search: 379 8812- 8823, 704/235, 704/251, 704/270, 704/260, 704/275, 704/277, 709/206, 4554121-466
• US Class Current: 379/88.22
• 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 system for accessing voicemail messages, the system 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 system is operative to;

receive a voicemail message generated from a call;

provide a user interface, the user interface displaying;

a text transcription of the voicemail message, wherein text corresponding to unrecognized voicemail speech is displayed differently from text corresponding to recognized voicemail speech; and

a play control, wherein an audio recording of the voicemail message is played upon activating the play control.

2. The system of claim 1, the user interface further displaying:

a progress bar, wherein the progress bar is displayed upon activation of the play control.

3. The system of claim 1, the user interface further displaying:

a duration of the audio recording.

4. The system of claim 1, the user interface further displaying:

a delete control, wherein at least one of the text transcription and the audio recording is deleted upon activation of the delete control.

5. The system of claim 1, the system 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.

6. The system of claim 1, the user interface further displaying:

a control for playing the audio recording through an external speaker.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the actions for selection comprise one or more of:

annotate a voicemail message;

play a voicemail message;

delete a voicemail message;

reply to a voicemail message;

flag a voicemail message; and

call back a phone number for a voicemail message.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the text corresponding to unrecognized voicemail speech is displayed differently based on one or more of a font, a color or a size of the text.

9. The system of claim 1, the system further operative to:

receive a selection of the voicemail message;

receive an annotation associated with the selected voicemail message, the annotation including text notes; and

store the annotation with the selected voicemail message.

10. A computer-readable storage device that stores a set of instructions which when executed causes a computing device to perform a method, comprising:

receiving a voicemail message generated from a call;

providing a user interface, the user interface displaying;

a text transcription of the voicemail message, wherein text corresponding to unrecognized voicemail speech is displayed differently from text corresponding to recognized voicemail speech; and

a play control, wherein an audio recording of the voicemail message is played upon activating the play control.

11. The computer-readable storage device of claim 10, the user interface further displaying:

a progress bar, wherein the progress bar is displayed upon activation of the play control.

12. The computer-readable storage device of claim 10, the user interface further displaying:

a duration of the audio recording.

13. The computer-readable storage device of claim 10, the user interface further displaying:

a delete control, wherein, at least one of the text transcription and the audio recording is deleted upon activation of the delete control.

14. The computer-readable storage device of claim 10, the method further comprising

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

in response to activation of the play control, playing the voicemail message from the selected point in the transcribed voicemail message.

15. The computer-readable storage device of claim 10, the method further comprising:

displaying a list of voicemail messages; and

displaying one or more actions for selection in the user interface.

16. The computer-readable storage device of claim 10, the method further comprising:

providing a notification of at least one missed call in the user interface,

17. A method executed by a computing system for accessing voicemail messages, the method comprising:

receiving a voicemail message generated from a call;

providing a user interface, the user interface displaying;

a text transcription of the voicemail message, wherein text corresponding to unrecognized voicemail speech is displayed differently from text corresponding to recognized voicemail speech; and

a play control, wherein an audio recording of the voicemail message is accessible upon activating the play control.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

receiving an annotation associated with the voicemail message, the annotation including text notes; and

storing the annotation with the voicemail message.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein receiving the voicemail message comprises:

recognizing at least one of a telephone number and a sender; and

generating information comprising at least one of;

an electronic mail address, a physical address, a website link, the telephone number, and a name of the sender.

20. The method of claim 17, 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.