Patent ID: 8565219

Claim:
A method of handling an incoming call from a caller to a user, comprising: determining whether a user is accepting calls based on one or more user parameters, wherein determining comprises sending an inquiry to multiple user communication devices on which the user may be available as to whether any of the user communication devices are accepting calls, and wherein the one or more user parameters are different than telephone numbers; determining, based on the one or more user parameters, that none of the user communication devices are accepting calls; prompting a caller to record a voice mail message to the user; determining that a user communication device is capable of screening the incoming call based on a message received from the user communication device; sending a special command to the user communication device indicating that the incoming call is available for screening and retrieving, wherein, in response to the user indicating a desire to screen the incoming call, the user listens to the voice mail message while the caller is leaving the voice mail message and wherein, in response to the user indicating a desire to retrieve the incoming call, the call is transferred to the user communication device; and receiving a command to mark the voice mail message as retrieved, wherein marking comprises appending an introduction to an audio stream corresponding to the voice mail message.