Patent ID: 8280015

Claim:
In an Internet telephony environment that includes a voicemail system configured to receive a voicemail message, a method of obtaining contextual information from a caller that is requested by a callee, the method comprising: in response to a client associated with the caller being transferred to the voicemail system: accessing a voicemail account of the callee for accepting the voicemail message that that includes callee specified rules for obtaining contextual information from the caller; obtaining a first set of contextual information from the client associated with the caller may vary depending on the capabilities of the client; determining whether the voicemail account is configured to obtain additional contextual information; and when the voicemail account is configured to obtain additional contextual information, obtaining the additional contextual information requested by the callee, wherein obtaining the additional contextual information requested by the callee includes accessing a service that maintains the additional contextual information on behalf of the caller.