Patent ID: 8451822

Claim:
A wireless mobile device, comprising: a wireless air interface which enables wireless communications between the wireless mobile device and both a circuit-switched telephone network and an internet protocol (IP) packet-switched network using a circuit-switched air interface protocol and a packet-switched air interface protocol, respectively; a user interface which enables a user to specify a remote subscriber identifier corresponding to a remote subscriber; executable instructions which implement a plurality of functions, including: (i) sending a first IP packet comprising the remote subscriber identifier to a remote database server via the wireless air interface and via the IP packet-switched network, the remote subscriber identifier to indicate an entry in the remote database containing an IP address associated with the remote subscriber, the IP address indicating where a remote station associated with the remote subscriber can be presently reached via an active IP connection; (ii) receiving from the remote database server via the wireless air interface a second IP packet comprising the IP address associated with the remote subscriber; and (iii) establishing, using the IP address associated with the remote subscriber, a bidirectional and interactive text messaging communication session for effecting transmission of textual characters entered by the user of the wireless mobile device to the remote station associated with the remote subscriber, via the wireless air interface and the IP packet-switched data network; a digital camera; and an image communication function implemented by the executable instructions for effecting transmission of a digital picture captured by the digital camera to the remote station, while the text messaging communication session is active.