Patent ID: 7849135

Claim:
In a telecommunications system having at least one network gateway coupled among multiple mobile devices and a network, and wherein a content sharing system and a content provider are also coupled to the network, a method of sharing content between a user and a recipient, both of whom have a mobile device having access to the network, the method comprising: receiving a request message, wherein the request message is generated, at least in part, by the content provider, the request message comprising: information identifying the content sharing system, and information identifying content provided by the content provider, wherein the user selected the identified content as content that the user wishes to share with the recipient; providing a user input form for display to the user, wherein the user input form includes a request for the user to identify the recipient; receiving user input information comprising a recipient telephone number submitted by the user via the user input form; determining, at the content sharing system, that a recipient device is not capable of rendering the content, and responsive thereto selecting an alternate content link; determining, at the content sharing system, whether the recipient is a subscriber to a service associated with the content sharing system based on the recipient telephone number; and generating a content share message comprising the alternate content link for transmittal to the mobile device of the recipient, wherein the content share message includes an indication of the identified content that the user wishes to share with the recipient, wherein, if the recipient is the subscriber to the service associated with the content sharing system, generating the content share message in a first protocol, and if the recipient is not the subscriber to the service associated with the content sharing system, generating the content share message in a second protocol.