Patent ID: 7945030

Claim:
A system for accessing messages stored in one communication platform by another communication platform, the system comprising: a standard telephone system; a standard legacy voicemail system storing a first voicemail message; a digital voicemail store; and a messaging server coupled to the standard telephone system, the messaging server further being coupled to the standard legacy voicemail system, the messaging server further being coupled to the digital voicemail store, the messaging server comprising: means for extracting the first voicemail message from the legacy voicemail system; means for digitizing the extracted voicemail message; and means for storing the digitized voicemail message in the digital voicemail store, wherein the messaging server further comprises: means for receiving an analog voice stream from a caller; means for digitizing the analog voice stream received from the caller as a second voicemail message in a digital format; means for storing the second voicemail message in the digital format in the digital voicemail store; means for determining whether the caller is a subscriber to the standard legacy voicemail system; means for converting the second voicemail message in the digital format to an analog format when the caller is determined to be a subscriber to the standard legacy voicemail system; and means for storing the second voicemail message in the analog format in the standard legacy voicemail system, when the caller is determined to be a subscriber to the standard legacy voicemail system, in addition to the second voicemail message in the digital format being stored in the digital voicemail store.