Patent ID: 7822815

Claim:
A method in an application server for playing a messaging prompt of a called party to a calling party, the method comprising: receiving calling party number information specifying a calling party; accessing stored calling party number information from an Internet Protocol (IP) based database server configured for storing calling party number information; comparing the received calling party number information to the stored calling party number information to determine if there is a match between the received calling party number information and the stored calling party number information; based on a determined match of the stored calling party number information identifying the calling party as a matched calling party, retrieving a personalized voice message in a recorded voice of the called party corresponding to the matched, stored calling party number information, for playback as the messaging prompt to the matched calling party, the personalized voice message containing a greeting specifically for the matched calling party, and if there is no match between the received calling party number information and the stored calling party number information, retrieving a generic voice message, different from the personalized voice message, as playback as the messaging prompt to the calling party.