A new Apple patent that was recently approved will provide enhanced methods to handling incoming calls by either putting them on hold or saving voice mails as an SMS.
Approved by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the patent is entitled "Dynamic Context-Based Auto-Response Generation," which aims to provide consumers with options when they're on a call or just generally unavailable.
The system can be completely automated. If the user can't answer the call, the caller receives a pre-recorded message based on the caller ID and other aspects. The caller would then be asked to leave a voice mail. That scenario would be triggered if, for example, the phone detects a user driving or if they're occupied, to which it'll then automatically forward an incoming call to voice mail.
Another scenario enables users to manually determine how to handle the call; one can choose to answer it, send it to voice mail or place it on hold. The latter option allows users to set the hold time and transmit that information to their callers, who will then decide if they wish to remain on hold or switch to voice mail.
Messages that are left in a user's voice mail can be converted to text, allowing you to read them when you're occupied with another call. While it's too early to tell due to the amount of patents that don't come into fruition, Apple may integrate the feature into the inevitable iPhone 6 (or/and iPhone 5S).
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Zak Islam is a freelance writer focusing on security, networking, and general computing. His work also appears at Digital Trends and Tom's Guide.
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A Bad Day A more proper title: More ammunition for the endless patent war where only the consumers and innovation lose.Reply -
wildkitten mightymaxioAndroid has had this for years now, I feel another lawsuit coming onhhjhjhjsame thing in my androidSorry, I have an Android (Droid Bionic) running ICS. Not seen anything with the phone that can detect what I am doing, or send a personalized voicemail message based on who is calling.Reply
As for Google Voice, nothing listed on it's features say anything about different voicemail messages depending on who is calling. -
wildkitten A Bad DayA more proper title: More ammunition for the endless patent war where only the consumers and innovation lose.So, you are saying that a person or company that invents something shouldn't be allowed to patent t he idea? Get rid of patents and you stifle innovation just as much as granting patents for broad, vague ideas.Reply
The thing is, developing a technology that can recognize who is calling, say for example a spouse, and gives them a different voicemail message than say your boss, well, that is not a broad or vague technology. That is actually a very good idea. Not to mention something that can detect what you are doing and base how it handles calls based on that action automatically. -
sharksman Zack iSlam with another useless apple blurb. It will take a couple of years an some lawsuits and this patent to be reversed ..Reply -
mightymaxio @Wildkitten you must not have looked hard enough because its right there under "Call" its called set reject messages. Then you have voicemail to text feature that you can enable as well. Granted its not entirely the same on stock ICS but you can get more features like the ones described by many free apps that are out there.Reply -
benikens For people questioning how you do this on Android, Tasker is your answer for this and so much more.Reply