Patent ID: 8918127

Claim:
A method of providing a messaging service for use in a wireless device of a sender, the method comprising: receiving, by a message client running on the wireless device of the sender, information associated with a destination address of a wireless device of a recipient, the message client capable of determining a transmission mode for sending an outgoing message to the wireless device of the recipient, wherein the wireless device of the sender is capable of sending messages in a plurality of transmission modes comprising a first transmission mode and a second transmission mode; determining, by the wireless device of the sender, whether the destination address corresponds to a subscriber of a service for receiving the outgoing message via a packet switched bearer by sending a request via a packet switched wireless local area network (WLAN) base station to a server, and receiving a response from the server via the packet switched WLAN base station, the response providing an indication of whether the destination address corresponds to a subscriber of the service; selecting, by the wireless device of the sender, a transmission mode from the plurality of transmission modes, wherein the wireless device of the sender selects the first transmission mode when the indication corresponds to a subscriber of the service, and the wireless device of the sender is capable of selecting the second transmission mode when the indication does not correspond to a subscriber of the service; sending, by the wireless device of the sender, the outgoing message using the selected transmission mode, wherein, when the selected transmission mode is the first transmission mode, the wireless device of the sender sends the outgoing message as one or more Internet protocol (IP) packets to the wireless device of the recipient via the packet switched WLAN base station, wherein, when the selected transmission mode is the second transmission mode, the wireless device of the sender sends the outgoing message as a short message service (SMS) message to the wireless device of the recipient using the destination address via a base station that is associated with a cellular core network that is independent of the packet switched WLAN base station, and wherein the request sent to the server and the response received from the server do not traverse the cellular core network.