Patent ID: 8311203

Claim:
A method of handling an incoming communication to a telecommunication device, the method comprising: receiving the incoming communication on the telecommunication device at an incoming communication time; alerting a user of the telecommunication device to the incoming communication; receiving an instruction from the user of the telecommunication device to defer the incoming communication, the receiving including: presenting the user with an interface having a selectable control for deferring the incoming communication and a set of other modes of communication available to the user, one or more of the other modes being presented as pre-selected modes; enabling the user to select additional modes in the set of other modes or deselect one or more of the pre-selected modes; and receiving a user selection of the selectable control for deferring the incoming communication; sending a defer message to an originating device from which the incoming communication was placed, the defer message specifying the set of other modes; and prompting the user of the telecommunication device to return the incoming communication at a return communication time that is later than the incoming communication time.