Patent ID: 8180382

Claim:
A method for transmitting an instant voice message, the method comprising: receiving, at a sender mobile device, an identification of a recipient mobile device to which the instant voice message is to be sent; receiving, via a microphone of the sender mobile device, an audio input signal and storing at least temporarily the audio input signal as the instant voice message in a memory of the sender mobile device; the sender mobile device querying one of a subscriber database and the recipient mobile device to determine whether the recipient mobile device is capable of receiving instant voice messages; the sender mobile device receiving a query response from one of the subscriber database and the recipient mobile device, the query response indicating whether the recipient mobile device is capable of receiving the instant voice messages; if the query response indicates that the recipient mobile device is capable of receiving the instant voice messages, the sender mobile device sending the instant voice message to the recipient mobile device; and if the query response indicates that the recipient mobile device is not capable of receiving the instant voice messages, the sender mobile device sending the instant voice message to a voicemail server for storage in association with a voicemail account of the recipient mobile device, so that the recipient mobile device can retrieve the instant voice message from the voicemail server; wherein the sender mobile device querying one of the subscriber database and the recipient mobile device to determine whether the recipient mobile device is capable of receiving the instant voice messages comprises the sender mobile device querying one of the subscriber database and the recipient mobile device to determine whether the recipient mobile device is opted out of an instant voice message service.