Patent ID: 8731146

Claim:
A system, comprising: a hands-free adapter having an interface to a mobile communications device; a processor operating in the hands-free adapter; and memory storing code that when executed causes the processor to perform operations, the operations comprising: storing associations between different voicemail commands and different voicemail messages; storing profiles for multiple users, each profile storing a command prefix chosen by one of the multiple users of the hands-free adapter, the command prefix being at least one spoken word that is chosen by the one of the multiple users to identify subsequently spoken voice commands that control the communications device, the subsequently spoken voice commands only effective when preceded by the command prefix; receiving a call at the communications device; detecting the command prefix in spoken speech during the call; treating a next spoken word after the command prefix as one of the different voicemail commands; querying the associations for the next spoken word; retrieving a name of one of the different voicemail messages that is associated to the next spoken word; generating a device command that emulates an interaction of the one of the multiple users with the communication device to answer the call; and sending the device command from the hands-free adapter to the communications device to play the name of the one of the different voicemail messages to a caller of the call.