Patent ID: 8098799

Claim:
A method for providing message-related information to a contacting party, comprising: receiving a voice contact to a first communication device of a subscriber from a second communication device of a contacting party; in response to receiving the voice contact, a messaging system associated with the subscriber transmitting session parameters via a single message to the second communication device, the session parameters including parameters for establishing an audio session with the second communication device as well as parameters for establishing a graphical user interface-based session with the second communication device wherein the single message comprises SIP OK message; effecting an audio session between the messaging system and the second communication device; thereafter performing at least one of the following steps: (i) transforming the audio session into a graphical user interface-based audio session between the messaging system and the second communication device by modifying the audio session to become an audio channel for the graphical user interface-based session; and (ii) transforming the audio session into a session between the messaging system and the second communication device also having a video channel, wherein the audio and video channels are both established based on the session parameters included in the single message; and providing message-related information to the second communication device of the contacting party via the transformed session.