Patent ID: 8634519

Claim:
A method for selecting an appropriate message greeting, the method comprising: receiving, using a message greeting system comprising a processor, a notification that a party is unavailable in response to a communication initiated by a contacting party; in response to receiving the notification, acquiring, using the message greeting system, contextual data associated with the contacting party; determining, using the message greeting system, an appropriate message greeting for the contacting party based upon the contextual data, wherein the appropriate message greeting is useable by the contacting party given a context in which the contacting party is involved; acquiring, using the message greeting system, the appropriate message greeting for the contacting party by performing operations comprising querying, using the message greeting system, a message store to determine if the appropriate message greeting is stored in the message store, wherein the message store stores one or more message greetings associated with the unavailable party, the one or more message greetings comprising a default message greeting, if the message greeting system determines that one of the one or more message greetings stored in the message store is the appropriate message greeting, requesting, using the message greeting system, the appropriate message greeting from the message store, and receiving, using the message greeting system, the appropriate message greeting, and if the message greeting system determines that one of the one or more message greetings is not the appropriate message greeting, causing, using the message greeting system, an inappropriate message stored in the message store to be adapted from a first format to a second format, by an adaptation module, for the context in which the contacting party is involved, based upon the contextual data, to create the appropriate message greeting.