Importance

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Abstract

A wireless instant messaging system is disclosed. A mobile station (MS), such as a cellular telephone for instance, may be registered with an instant messaging (IM) server as being available to receive instant messages via an IM proxy. A user at an IM client terminal may then send an instant message destined for a user at the MS. The IM server may direct the message to a service node (SN), which may convert the message into an industry standard SMS message and send the SMS message to the MS. At the MS, a user may read the SMS message and engage a callback feature, which will establish a dial-up voice connection between the MS and the SN. The user at the MS may then speak an instant message response, and the SN may record the response as a compressed audio file. The SN may then send the compressed audio file as an attachment to an instant message back to the user at the IM client terminal. The IM client terminal may then play the spoken response message. The invention facilitates robust instant messaging communication, while avoiding the need for a user at the mobile station to engage in cumbersome text entry via a numeric keypad.

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First Claim