Patent ID: 7424099

Claim:
A method of presenting a customized message to a calling party and for allowing the calling party to save or forward the customized message, comprising: saving a customized message from a called party for presentation to the calling party; associating the customized message with an identifier other than a telephone directory number of the calling party; receiving a call from the calling party directed to the called party; determining whether the call from the calling party is associated with the customized message; if the call from the calling party is associated with the customized message, playing the customized message from the called party to the calling party; after playing the customized message to the calling party, receiving an indication from the calling party to save the customized message from the called party to a location designated by the calling party for later retrieval by the calling party, wherein the designated location includes one of a voicemail box and an email address; if the designated location is a voicemail box, saving the customized message to the voicemail box designated by the calling party for later retrieval by the calling party; and if the designated location is an email address, mailing electronically the customized message to the email address designated by the calling party.