UNIQUE CHARACTERIZATION OF ANSWERING MACHINE MESSAGES FOR CELL PHONES

摘要

A method to characterize cellular telephone messages using caller identification and additional security to transfer messages to specific callers. The cellular telephone customer will record a message for a specific caller. The customer and the intended recipient will share verification information for accessing the specific messages independent of any system components. When the recipient calls the cellular telephone answering system (400), the system will use caller identification information to determine if the calling party's information matches the message recipient information that the customer programmed in (408). If there is a match, the system will prompt the user to enter a personal identification number or password (410). If the stored information matches the information entered by the customer (412), the unique message will be played back for the caller (414). If there is no match, the standard message will be played for the caller (418).