MXPA97010203A - Voice mail with executable answers included - Google Patents

Abstract

The creator of a voicemail message is provided with the ability to predefine responses to the message. The predefined responses can be sent (ie, included) with the voicemail message to the recipient's mailbox, so that when the recipient opens the voicemail message, the message is heard, and the recipient is provided with a menu of predefined answers to choose from. After listening to the predefined responses, the receiver selects a particular response, which is then sent to the originator of the voicemail message origin

Description

VOICE MAIL WITH EXECUTABLE ANSWERS INCLUDED TECHNICAL FIELD The invention relates to telecommunications. In particular, the invention relates to voice mail with included executable responses.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Voicemail has become a widely used communication channel, both in domestic and office environments. Conventional voicemail systems allow a sender to leave a message for a receiver to facilitate communication between them, for example, when the receiver is busy or away from a telephone. Typically, such voicemail systems provide the ability for the sender to record and leave an audio message in the recipient's voicemail. Some voicemail systems provide the sender with a choice of fixed options, which can be applied to a particular voice message. For example, the sender can give a priority status to a message, so that the receiver will hear such a priority message before listening to other messages in REF: 26160 the mailbox. A message can be made private, so that the recipient is unable to send such a private message to other parties. A sender also has the ability to send a message to multiple recipients. The recipient of a voicemail message, by having access to his or her voicemail at some convenient time, can then listen to the message sent by the sender. Voice mail systems generally provide the recipient with a number of fixed options, such as the ability to save the message, send the message to other parties, and record a reply message that is sent to the sender of the original message. While many voice mail systems work quite satisfactorily in many applications, the options provided to users are generic, although none of the options can be finalized and applied to a particular message. Accordingly, there is a need for improved voicemail capabilities, where users have better control over the information contained in a voicemail message.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The need for voice mail capabilities is met by the present invention, wherein the creator of a voicemail message is provided with the ability to predefine responses to the message. The predefined responses can be sent (ie included) with the voice mail message to the recipient's mailbox, so that when the receiver opens the voice message, the message is heard, and the receiver is provided with a voicemail menu. predefined answers from which to choose. After listening to the predefined responses, the receiver selects a particular response, which is then sent to the creator of the original voice mail message, or act in another way. In an illustrative example of the invention, a computer supply business can use the invention by sending a voice mail message to a customer who has recently purchased a personal computer. The message thanks the customer for the business and then suggests the customer to "press one on your touch tone phone, if everything is working fine with the computer, press two if you are having problems with the installation and want a technician to call, or press three if you want a call the next month to verify that everything is satisfactory. " After the client accesses the mailbox and receives the message (including the predefined responses), the client makes the desired selection and the response is returned to the sender's business and voicemail. Different such menus can be provided for different businesses and applications. Other examples of the invention are provided to highlight the additional inventive features: the answers can be counted, which may be useful in survey applications; in the identities of the receivers can be returned to the sender of the message; the selection of certain responses can be used to trigger the reproduction of an additional message content; audio segments or digital data can be recorded by the receiver, as part of a response returned to the originator of the message; a phone call can be initiated as part of a predefined response; and advantageous combinations of the aforementioned characteristics can be used in some applications.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIGURE 1 is a simplified block diagram of an illustrative voice mail system, which facilitates the practice of the invention.

FIGURE 2 is a simplified block diagram of a flowchart of an illustrative voicemail system, showing in particular details of the controller and memory of the voice mail system, in accordance with the principles of the invention. FIGURE 3 is a flow chart illustrating access to an illustrative voice mail system, in accordance with the principles of the invention. FIGURE 4 is a flow diagram illustrating the creation of an action message using a telephone interconnection, in accordance with the principles of the invention. FIGURE 5 is a flow diagram illustrating the recovery and reproduction of an action message from the recipient's voice mailbox, in accordance with the principles of the invention. FIGURE 6 is a flow diagram illustrating the collection, tabulation, and retrieval of the responses of the action message, in accordance with the principles of the invention. FIGURE 7 is an illustration of an exemplary action message file, in accordance with the principles of the invention. FIGURE 8 is an illustration of the recording of an exemplary action message response, in accordance with the principles of the invention.

FIGURE 9 is a report of the results of the exemplary action message, in accordance with the principles of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION FIGURE 1 is a simplified block diagram of a voicemail system 100, which facilitates the practice of the invention. The creative terminal 102, the receiver terminal 104, the communication network 106, the voice mail system controller 108, and the memory 110 are shown. Terminals 102 and 104, in this illustrative example of the invention, are telephones conventional However, multi-media capable computers, wireless personal communication devices, cell phones, paging devices can also be used, with particular advantage in certain applications of the invention. Such devices are known and described in more detail herein. The communication network 106 may be a public connected telephone network ("PSTN"), a computer network such as the Internet, a branch of a private exchange, and the like. The communication network 106 transports the information to terminals 104 and 106, as well as to a voice mail system controller 108, which is coupled to the network as shown. The voice mail system controller 108 is coupled to the memory 110, which is used to store the voice mail messages in individual mailboxes under the control of the voice mail system controller 108. The memory 110 may also be used. to store suggestions and system information which facilitates the use of the voice mail system. The voice mail system controller 108 and the memory 110 of the voice mail system 112. In accordance with the principles of the invention, the creator of a voice message in the creative terminal 102 dials through the communication network 106 to the voice mail system controller 108. The voice mail system controller 108, using the technology of the conventional automatic response unit, such as that sold by Lucent Technologies Inc. under the trademark of Conversant® (not shown), you can then interact with the originator of the message in terminal 102, so that the inventive voicemail message can be created and delivered to the intended recipient. To assist in the clarity of the presentation of the inventive concepts, the inventive voice mail message is referred to herein as an "action message" to distinguish it from a conventional voice mail. The term "action" is used because the receiver incited to take action of the message instead of simply taking a passive interest as with conventional voicemail. Referring now to FIGURE 2, a simplified block diagram of an illustrative voicemail system is s, in accordance with the principles of the invention. More specifically, FIGURE 2 illustrates the details of the voice mail system controller 108, s in FIGURE 1. Included within the voice mail system controller 108 is the service controller 202, which is coupled to operable way to the system ID of the User 204, to the voice port 206, to the data m? dem 208, to the system for recovering and reproducing the message 210, and to the message creation system 212. The service controller 202 is also coupled optionally to the interconnection of the mailbox network 214. The interconnection of the mailbox network 214 can be used to facilitate communication (via the local area network of the intersystem mailbox 220) with other remotely located voice systems, including the system of local mailbox 2 ... local mailbox system n, which are designated by the numerical references 216 and 218, respectively, as s in FIGURE 2. FIGURE 3 is a flow diagram that illustrates users gain access to the voicemail system in order to create or retrieve an action message in accordance with the principles of the invention. Such access comes in common both to the creation and retrieval of the message. The process begins in block 302, where the user (i.e., the voice mail service customer, such as a message creator or a message retriever) dials into the voice mail system controller 108 to gain access to the action message system via the communication network 106 (which, in this illustrative example of the invention, is a PSTN). The system controller 108 answers the call using the service controller 202, which communicates with the user ID system 204, to identify the client as s in block 304. The user is suggested to log into the system, as s in block 306, with a user identification or password. The user can do this by entering a user identification and password, typically using dual tone multiple frequency ("DTMF") signals generated by pressing the numeric keypad on the telephone terminal device. Such DTMF signals are commonly referred to as "touch tones". While the use of DTMF tones and automatic response units are used illustratively, it is also intended that other interconnection techniques (including the use of live operators, and automatic systems using speech recognition technology), fall within of the spirit and scope of the present invention. Alternatively, the automatic number identification ("ANI") signal which may accompany the user's call may be used to provide a means of user identification to the voice mail system controller 108. After the identification of the user is verified, the user ID system 204 passes the user ID to the service controller 202, with the authorization to proceed with the access process. After registering, as s in block 308, the service controller 202 communicates with the system for retrieving and reproducing message 210, which verifies the received message database 222 in memory 110 for new messages. A suggestion is reproduced to the user: "you have N new messages", where N is the number of new messages stored for this user. In block 310, service controller 202 offers the user a choice to retrieve new messages or record and send messages, including action messages of the present invention. Depending on the user's choice, as s in decision block 312, the process continues as s in FIGURE 4 or FIGURE 5. If a user chooses to create a message, then the process, as shown in the flow diagram of FIGURE 4, is applicable. The decision block 402 determines whether an action message or a conventional voicemail message is desired. As shown in FIGURE 4, if a conventional method is desired, the user (which in this case is now referred to as the message creator) presses "1" and records a conventional voice message in block 404, which is stored for a subsequent retrieval by the receiver of the message in terminal 104 (FIGURE 1). Continuing with the description of FIGURE 4, if the creator of the message working in terminal 102 (FIGURE 1) wishes to create an action message, then a "2" is pressed on the telephone keypad, which causes the system to of creation of the message 212 call the phonetic writing generator of the action message 226 (FIGURE 2), which provides an interactive voice response interconnection for the creation of the action message, according to the invention. The phonetic writing is used in this illustrative embodiment of the invention, to facilitate the generation of instructions to the voice mail system. The phonetic writing generator of the message 226 suggests to the creator of the message to indicate the desired number of predefined responses, which will be offered to the recipient of the voice message, as shown in block 406. In this illustrative example of the invention is indicated by a number between 1-9 using the telephone keypad, as shown in block 408. As shown in block 410, the phonetic writing generator of the action message 226 (FIGURE 2), after the suggestion to user, receives the DTMF tone indicative of the number of desired predefined responses, N, and configures the phonetic writing according to this. More specifically, the phonetic writing generator of the action message 226 adds a meeting module to the phonetic script, which accepts the digits l-N as valid entries. Appropriate error messages can be created by the phonetic writing generator of the action message 226, and reproduced for entries outside this range. The phonetic writing generator of the action message also structures the phonetic writing to include N specific action modules, each associated with one of the N choices. As each type of action is subsequently selected by the creator of the message, the phonetic writing generator of the action message 226 appends the action module associated with the phonetic writing. By this process, once the creator of the message has fully specified each of the l-N actions (including the necessary audio fragments, call transfer numbers, etc.) the phonetic writing is completed. Moving to block 412, a choice of one to six action types can be selected, for each predefined response. As will be evident in the discussion that follows, the phonetic writing generator of the action message iterates through a selection menu for each predefined response N chosen. The iteration runs 1, 2, ... i ... N. As shown in block 412, for each first response, the creator of the message selects an action type. In this illustrative example, for action type 1, a cumulative count of receivers that choose a particular predefined response can be recorded and delivered to the originator of the message. A list of voicemail addresses of recipients who chose a particular response can be generated as a second type of action. An additional piece of audio can be played as a third type of action. A propagated response can be prepared as a fourth type of action. Further discussion of the propagated responses can be found in our copending US Patent Application Serial Number 08/723734, the description of which is incorporated herein by reference. A call transfer can be implemented as a fifth type of action. Y, as a sixth type of action, a numerical answer can be gathered. It is emphasized that many types of action can be focused to fall within the scope of the invention, and the six types described herein are merely illustrative. In addition, the variety of action types shown in block 412 are optional, that is, in some applications of the invention, it may be desirable to limit the number of action types. For example, to minimize complexity for the message creator, a limited number of "patterns" of the action message can be preprogrammed and offered to the creator of the message from a pattern menu. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that patterns are another convenient way of providing instructions to the voice mail system, to facilitate the practice of the present invention. The preprogrammed can be provided by the voice mail service provider, or, in some cases, by the user. Such patterns may include, for example, 1) a pattern of two "yes / no" selections with individual responses that are returned to the sender; 2) a four-choice recognition pattern, with cumulative accounts returned to the sender, and 3) a call transfer pattern of two selections (for example, "if you are satisfied, press 1; if you need to talk to our representative, press 2"). In this case, the individual address of the respondent is returned to the sender. In cases where the patterns are used, the storage and transport requirements for the action message can be reduced, for example, as only the specifications of the message can be sent and stored. The message retrieval and reproduction system 210 (FIGURE 2), equipped with a pattern similar to that provided to the phonetic writing generator of the action message, can then reconstruct the original action message. Examples of action messages that use each type of action noted above, in more detail, will be provided in the discussion below. In block 416, the originator of the message indicates to the phonetic writing generator of the action message 226, what type of action is desired for the? E3 response in the set of N desired predefined responses. For types 1, 2 and 4, the phonetic writing generator of the voicemail system action message 226, adds the appropriate response recording and meeting modules to the phonetic script, and tests whether the iteration is complete for all The N answers, as indicated in blocks 418 and 414. If not, another iteration is initiated by returning to block 412 as shown in FIGURE 4. If all N iterations have been completed, then the service controller 212 suggests the The creator of the message that records an audio message as shown in block 422. With the completion of the recording, the voice mail system controller 108 performs the revision, address and delivery to one or more desired voice mailboxes (for example, example, the local mailboxes 216 and 218 in FIGURE 1), in a conventional manner as shown in block 424. The phonetic writing creator of the action message 226, then stores the finished phonetic writing, and the fragments and associated voice mail messages in the database of the output message 224, as shown in block 426. A unique identification of the action message is also assigned, to the particular action message created for identification and tracking, the details of which are described later in greater detail. The total number of receivers for this particular action message can also be conveniently tracked and the addresses of the receivers stored at this point in the process. Such tracking of the total number of intended recipients, and the storage of their addresses may be useful, for example, to determine the success rate of a particular message and to identify who responds to a particular message. For action type 3, the phonetic writing generator of the action message adds a voice fragment module to the phonetic script, and suggests to the creator of the message to record the audio fragment as shown in block 426. In the block 428, the creator of the message records the audio fragment in a conventional manner. The control then proceeds to block 418 and the process continues as discussed above. For the type of action 6, the phonetic writing generator of the action message 226 adds a module for gathering the numerical value to the phonetic writing, and informs the creator of the message that the recipient of the message must conclude the numerical entries with the sign of pound as shown in block 430. Control then passes to block 418 and the process continues as discussed above. For the action type 5, the phonetic writing generator of the action message 226 adds a call transfer module to the phonetic writing, and suggests to the creator of the message that it enter the telephone number to which the calls will be transferred., as shown in block 432. The creator of the message enters the number using the telephone keypad, as shown in block 434. The control then passes to block 418 and the process continues as discussed above. The phonetic writing and the complete modules, as described above, are saved for delivery to the appropriate voicemail system of the intended recipient. The phonetic writing and associated modules form the basis for providing instructions to a voice mail system to implement the desired action message. These instructions, which can be referred to as a "datagram", when triggered, cause the voice mail message action portion to implement the features of the present invention. Several examples will now be discussed to further highlight the invention. As previously mentioned, a computer business can use an action message to inspect the last 100 customers who have purchased a computer from their business. In such an example, the creator of the message presses "3" on the telephone keypad as in block 410 of FIGURE 4, to indicate that three predefined responses are desired to be included in this particular action message. In block 416, the creator of the message presses "1" on the telephone keypad to indicate that cumulative responses are desired. After three iterations, the computer business representative recorded the message: "Press one on your touch-tone phone, if you use your computer primarily at home; press 2 if you use your computer mainly in your work; or press 3 if you use your computer both at home and at work. "Since the first type of action was selected by the computer business for each predefined response, a cumulative count of the number of times each predefined response is selected by the receivers, it is registered by the voice mail system controller 108, and is stored in the memory 110, to be delivered to the business, for example, using the business voice mailbox in either a local voice mail system or remote In block 424 of FIGURE 4, the business would direct the action message to the 100 intended recipients, using conventional methods, eg, automatic voice mail lists, and the like, In addition, a computer interconnection may be used. conventional to interact with the voice mail system controller 108 (FIGURE 1) through the data modem 208 (FIGURE 2), to create and receive responses and action messages n accordance with the principles of the invention. Action type 1 can also be useful in informal opinion polls. For example, a newspaper can send an action message to its subscribers, asking them to indicate which comic strips are the most popular. Action type 2 provides the addresses of the receivers to be returned to the originator of the message. Such information can facilitate the request for more information by the interested receivers. For example, a mutual fund company may choose the type of action 2, for the message "please press 1 to receive a prospectus of our last offer". Upon reception of the appropriate DTMF tone during message playback to the receiver, the voice mail system controller 108 would collect the recipient's voice mail address for delivery to the company. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the returned addresses can be used to automatically send the appropriate information when it is received. Action type 3 facilitates the reproduction of the additional audio information, to the receiver of the action message, and the number of times the response was selected can be recorded. For example, a record company can select action type 3 to accompany the message "to listen to a sample of our latest compact disc, press one and its tone keyboard by touch". It is also noted that a combination of types of actions can be mixed in the same action message. Continuing with the example of the record company, the record company can record the action message "press one if you prefer rock music, two if you prefer jazz, and three if you would like to listen to a sample of our latest album compact". Action type 1 would be selected for predefined responses one and two, and action type 3 would be selected for the third predefined response. Action type 4, the prepaid response, offers the receiver of the action message an opportunity to record a return message at the expense of the creator of the original message. Such a choice may be particularly desirable, for example, in the context of commercial solicitation for customer opinions. Those skilled in the art will also recognize that such prepaid responses may be desirable for game applications and context, or for example, for customer feedback about the new product. Action type 5 provides an opportunity to launch a telephone call as a direct response to the original message. An example that highlights this particular inventive feature, is a sports seller, who is promoting a sale of golf clubs. The action message can include the information generated about the price and characteristics of the promoted clubs, and then give one of several predefined responses "press 1 if you would like to be transferred to our customer order hot line". When the receiver presses "1", the voice mail system controller 108 communicates with the communication network 106, to allow a leaving call to be placed with the sports vendor, and the receiver is transferred and connected in a conventional manner. Action type 6 enables the receiver of the action message to enter numeric data which is sent to the creator of the message. You can also send, optionally, the voice mail address or identification. Examples of numerical data are included in the social security number, credit or calling card numbers, assortment number of a product for a catalog sale, a previous order tracking number, and the like. FIGURE 5 is a flow diagram illustrating the reproduction of an action message from the receiver's mailbox, in accordance with the principles of the invention. The process continues (from block 312 of the access process discussed when referring to FIGURE 3), with the system for retrieving and reproducing the message 210, which contains messages from the received message database 22, in the memory 110 (FIGURE 1), as shown in block 518. The new messages contained in the received message database 222, for that particular user, could be a mixture of action and conventional messages, according to the invention. . In block 520, the system for retrieving and reproducing messages 210 determines whether a retrieved message is an action message. If a retrieved message is an action message, then the message retrieval and reproduction system 210 calls the phonetic write interpreter of the action message 228, to execute the predefined responses and the particular action types, as described above, in a phonetic script of the action message, as shown in block 522. The responses selected by the receiver of the action message are gathered as shown in block 524. As appropriate, the address 9 ID of the voice mail it is replaced with the selected responses from block 526. In addition, an identification of the single action message is included, with the selected responses, which are delivered to the controller of service 202, so that it is returned to the creator of the message. In block 528, the message receiver is provided with the bran, erased, typical sent, and other fixed options. If the result of the decision block 520 is that the message is a conventional message (and not an action message), then the control goes to block 530, where the conventional message is reproduced to the recipient of the message in a conventional manner. The reproduction process, through the blocks 518 and 532 iteratively, until there are no more new messages available, at which point the playback control is returned to the service controller 202, as shown in block 534. FIGURE 6 is a flow diagram that illustrates the collection, tabulation and retrieval of the responses of the action message by the exemplary voicemail system 112 (FIGURE 1), in accordance with the principles of the invention. The process begins in block 602, wherein a voice mail message is received by the service controller 202. It is also noted that the message received by the service controller 202 may be a conventional voice mail message, a message of action (created according to the flow chart shown in FIGURE 4), or a response of the action message sent by the receiver of the action message. The voicemail message could be received, internally, from the voicemail system 112, or from other voicemail systems 216 and 218 (FIGURE 2). The service controller 202 routes the voicemail message to the message retrieval and reproduction system 210, as shown in block 604. Moving to block 606, the message retrieval and reproduction system 210 searches for a response indicator of the message 210. action message, in the header of the voicemail message. If the result of the decision block 608 is that the voicemail message received by the service controller 202, is not a response of the action message (ie, whether it is either an action message or an email message of conventional voice), then the service controller 202 delivers the message to the message database received from the receiver 222, via the system for retrieving and reproducing the message 210, as shown in block 610. If a response is received from the action message by the service controller 202, then the block 612 is reached, and the retrieval and reproduction system of the message 210 reads the header of the message, so that the type of action and the ID of the action message are determined. Continuing with block 614, the message recovery and reproduction system 210 processes the response according to the type of action selected and the identification of the action message. For action types 1, 3, and 5, the control is passed to block 622, where a counter is incremented for this type of action ID, according to the ID of the action message in a report of the response summary. An illustrative response summary report is shown in FIGURE 9. A summary report may be generated with a sender's request, after some predetermined interval, or after a predetermined number of recipients have responded. For example, a summary report can be prepared every hour, every day, or every week, or perhaps 24 hours after a particular action message is sent by the sender. The summary report may be in audio or paper format, as shown in blocks 626, 628 and 630 in FIGURE 6. For action type 4, the control is passed from block 614 to block 616, in where an audio response is routed to the sender's voicemail, with a designation of a prepaid response. The control then passes to block 622, where the counter is incremented for this type of action according to the identification of the message, as described above. For action type 6, the control is passed from 614 to block 618, where the numerical responses are recorded and the address of the receiver is collected according to the message ID. The control then passes to block 622 where the counter is incremented for this type of action, according to the message ID as described above. For action type 2, the control is passed over from > block 614 to block 620, where both the type of action and the addresses of the receiver meet. The control then goes to block 622, where the counter is incremented for this type of action according to the message ID as described above. FIGURE 8 is an engraving illustration of the exemplary action message response, in accordance with the principles of the invention. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the engraving of the response is a means to provide the originating sender of the action message, with a response to an action message. In FIGURE 8, the engraving of an exemplary action message response is shown. The response record can be generated by the message retrieval and recording system 210, in the recipient's mailbox system, and added to a response summary report as shown in block 624. Response recording includes nine fields . Field 802 is used to identify the receiver of the response of the action message by the voice mail ID. According to the invention, the receiver of the response of the action message is the original sender of the action message. Similarly, field 804 is used to identify the sender of the response of the action message by the voice mail ID. According to the invention, the sender of the message response of >; action is the receiver of the original action message. Fields 806 and 808 are used to indicate the date and time of the response, respectively. Field 810 is used to indicate the state of the recording, as it is either an action message, not an action message (ie, a conventional voice mail message), or the response to an action message. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the use of field 810 allows the recording of the response to be used as a general recording with applicability to more than just responses of the action message. Field 812 indicates a unique action message ID. Field 814 indicates an action pattern number. As discussed above, patterns are used to simplify or facilitate certain interactions with the voicemail system. Field 816 is used to indicate the type of action, and field 818 is used to communicate additional information or arguments as needed. It is emphasized that all the fields in FIGURE 8 are illustrative, and that they may optionally be used with the invention. FIGURE 7 is an illustration of an exemplary action message file, in accordance with the principles of the invention. The action message file includes eight fields. Fields 702 to 714 correspond in format and function to fields 802 to 814 in FIGURE 8. Field 716 is used to actually store the portion of the digitized audis message content of the action message, as well as the associated audio fragments. included in the response of the included action message. It is emphasized that all fields in FIGURE 7 are illustrative, and that they are optionally used with the invention. FIGURE 9 is a summary report of the exemplary action message response, in accordance with the principles of the invention. The response summary report provides the results obtained from the meeting and tabulation of the responses of the action message, within a predefined period of time or with the specific request of the sender. Therefore, each response recording of the action message (FIGURE 8) is used to create the results report. As shown in FIGURE 9, for this illustrative report, the sender is informed according to the results of a particular action message, which the sender created at a particular date and time, as shown in field 902. The pattern used by the sender is also identified. Field 904 identifies the number of messages sent and the responses received from a particular desired time. A record of each option provided to the receiver is provided in fields 906, 908 and 910, as shown. Field 912 indicates that two receivers, identified by. the email ID, voice, have not yet responded to the action message. It is noted that in relation to this date, the best method known to the applicant to carry out the aforementioned invention, is that which is clear from the present description of the invention. Having described the invention as above, property is claimed as contained in the following:

Claims (18)

1. A method for use with a voicemail system, the method is characterized in that it comprises the steps of: receiving a voicemail message created by a sender of the message, to be delivered to a voicemail of the recipient of the message; receiving a plurality of datagrams to the voice mail message, wherein each of the plurality of datagrams is capable of initiating a predefined action defined by the sender of the message; providing both the voicemail message and the plurality of datagrams to the receiver's mailbox, so that the recipient can access both the voicemail message and the plurality of datagrams; and allowing the receiver to select from a plurality of datagrams in a manner that allows the voice mail system to perform the predefined action contained in the selected datagram,

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the predefined action includes sending a response to the creator of the message.

3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the predefined action includes connecting the message receiver to the called party over a telephone network.

4. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the predefined action includes playing a pre-recorded audio fragment to the receiver.

5. The method in accordance with the claim 1, characterized in that the predefined action includes gathering the data of the receiver.

6. The method according to claim 5, characterized in that it includes the step • of sending the gathered data to the message sender.

7. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the predefined action includes sending a voice response from the receiver to the sender of the message.

8. The method according to claim 7, characterized in that the voice response is a propagated speech response.

9. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that it also includes a step of sending an identification of the recipient of the message to the sender of the message.

10, A method characterized in that it comprises the steps of: receiving instructions associated with an original voice mail message, sent by a sender of the voice mail message, the instructions indicate an action, wherein the action is one of a plurality of actions predefined by the sender of the voice mail message; read the instructions to check the action; and performing the action indicated in the instructions, so as to allow the recipient of the original voice mail message to respond to the original voice mail message in a manner that is predefined by the sender of the voice mail message.

11. The method in accordance with the claim 10, characterized in that the action includes sending a response to the sender of the message.

12. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that the action includes connecting the message receiver to a called party over a telephone network.

13. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that the action includes reproducing a pre-recorded audio fragment to the receiver.

14. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that the action includes gathering the receiver data.

15. The method according to claim 14, characterized in that it also includes a step of sending the gathered data to the sender of the message.

16. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that the predefined action includes sending a voice response from the receiver to the sender of the message.

17. The method in accordance with the claim 16, characterized in that the voice response is a propagated speech response.

18. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that it also includes a step of sending an identification of the receiver to the sender of the message.