Patent ID: 8086751

Claim:
A system comprising: at least one server configured: to receive information corresponding to a multi-media message sent from a client device of a sender via a network; to stream the multi-media message to a second client device for presentation to a recipient; to determine whether the second client device has rendering software for delivering a video portion of the multi-media message; if the at least one server determines that the second client device does not have the rendering software, to stream the multi-media message from the at least one server such that a generic rendering software will deliver the multi-media message; to determine whether the second client device includes the rendering software for delivering a video portion of the multi-media message, wherein if the at least one server determines that the second client device does not include the rendering software, the at least one server is configured to stream the multi-media message from the at least one server such that the generic rendering software will deliver the multi-media message; and to determine whether the second client device includes speech synthesis software associated with a voice requested by the sender, wherein: if the at least one server determines that the second client device does not include the speech synthesis software, the at least one server is configured to synthesize audio and stream the audio to the second client device; if the at least one server determines that the second client device includes the speech synthesis software and the voice requested by the sender is available, the at least one server is configured to deliver data for voice synthesis to the second client device, the voice requested by the sender to be synthesized at the second client device; and if the at least one server determines that the second client device includes the speech synthesis software but the voice requested by the sender is not available, the at least one server is configured to download the voice to the second client device for the second client device to synthesize the voice.