Patent ID: 8611876

Claim:
A phone operated by a user comprising: a receiver for receiving an inbound call over a communications network from a caller, the inbound call being a voice call or at least one text message; a speaker; a screen; and a controller coupled to the receiver, the speaker and the screen, wherein the controller permits the user to set and store configuration information for a plurality of callers, retrieves the configuration information associated with the caller, and based on the inbound call and the retrieved configuration information associated with the caller determining a configuration mode for the phone; in response to determining a first configuration mode the controller routes the voice call to the speaker, in response to determining a second configuration mode the controller routes the at least one text message to the screen, in response to determining a third configuration mode the controller converts the voice call to one or more text messages and routes the one or more text messages to the screen, and in response to determining a fourth configuration mode the controller converts the at least one text message to a voice call and routes the voice call to the speaker.