Patent ID: 7480368

Claim:
At a voice message provider, a method of delivering voice messages to an intended recipient, comprising: receiving a voice message from a sender directed to an intended recipient; storing the voice message in a database; assigning a retrieval telephone number to the received voice message; correlating the retrieval telephone number and the received voice message to one or more recipient identifiers for identifying the intended recipient; preparing a notification message including at least the retrieval telephone number assigned to the received voice message; sending the notification message to the intended recipient that, when selected by the intended recipient, causes the voice message to be retrieved from the database; receiving a telephone call from the intended recipient, the telephone call being initiated by intended recipient's selection of the notification message which dials the retrieval telephone number included in the notification message; identifying the voice message correlated to the retrieval telephone number and to the recipient identifier; and sending the voice message to the intended recipient.