Patent Document ID: 8838061
Application ID: 13332600

Base Claim:
1. A method, performed by a server, for managing a text messaging session between a caller device and a plurality of responding devices, the method comprising: establishing the text messaging session, which establishes a media path for exchanging text messages between the caller device and a single device having a device identifier known to the caller device, wherein the session is established in response to a call from the caller device; joining multiple responding devices to the text messaging session, establishing a real-time text messaging session between the multiple responding devices wherein each responding device sees in real time contents of the other responding device's text messages being typed before any text message is sent to the caller device; receiving text messages from the multiple responding devices; sending, over the media path to the caller device, a set of text messages based on the text messages received from the multiple responding devices; wherein the multiple responding devices comprises a first responding device that sends a first text message at a first time and a second responding device that sends a second text message at a second and subsequent time, wherein sending the set of text messages comprises: determining that a time interval between the first and second times is shorter than a threshold time interval; and applying at least one rule to determine at least one of the first or the second text messages to send to the caller device; wherein the at least one rule comprises at least one of: sending the first text message, and providing an indication to the second responding device that the second text message was not sent; sending the second text message to the caller device when the second responding device has assigned an override-drop status to the second text message; determining a role of an operator using the second responding device, and determining, based on the role, whether to send the second text message; or sending the first text message and delaying sending the second text message to the caller device by a delay time interval.

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Claim 7:
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of text messages comprises a first text message from a first responding device of the multiple responding devices and a second text message from a second responding device of the multiple responding devices, wherein both the first and the second text messages are associated with a same identifier.