Patent ID: 8457286

Claim:
A method for acknowledging an incoming call comprising: receiving an incoming call request addressed to a first communication device from a second communication device utilized by a caller; forwarding the incoming call request to the first communication device utilized by a user; receiving an acknowledgment indication from the first communication device that the incoming call request has been received by the user of the first communication device; and connecting a call between the second communication device and a media server in response to receiving the acknowledgment indication from the first communication device utilized by the user, wherein the media server is configured to send at least one acknowledgment message which is not a voice message to the second communication device utilized by the caller, wherein the acknowledgement message is associated with the acknowledgement indication, and wherein the acknowledgement indication is selectable by the user from a plurality of acknowledgement indications including at least default indications and user entered text indications; wherein the media server is further configured to prompt the caller associated with the second communication device to leave a voicemail message after playing the acknowledgement message; and wherein the media server is further configured to record a voicemail message from the caller.