This disclosure provides systems, methods, services, and platforms for automatically prompting a user of a mobile device to send feedback after a triggering event. This disclosure enables Mobile Network Operators to immediately solicit timely feedback from a mobile user after an interaction with the user. When a business, group, or other entity has an active survey campaign, a survey message comprising one or more response options is automatically sent to a mobile device after a triggering event occurs. Based on the user's selected response option, subsequent, follow-up survey messages can be automatically sent to the mobile device.

The present disclosure provides details of a system and method for customizing an inmate communication notification. Such a system provides an inmate different customized notification messages to be played to different called parties. The system includes a list of different contacts, and each of the contacts can be associated with one or more contact numbers. Each contact number is associated with one or more customized notification messages. The customized notification messages include terms, phrases, and sentences that draw the called party's attention and sound familiar to the called party. The customized notification messages include customized text files, audio files, and video files. An inmate chooses one or more customized notification messages to be played to a called party.

Various example implementations are directed to circuits, apparatuses, and methods for providing voice-over-IP (VoIP) services. According to an example embodiment, an apparatus includes one or more VoIP servers configured and arranged to route VoIP calls to and from users of a plurality of customer accounts. Each customer account has a respective plurality of users and a respective settings file. For each of the customer accounts, a processing circuit communicatively coupled to the VoIP servers, records an audio portion of a VoIP call to or from a user of the customer account in response to the VoIP call satisfying a set of recording criteria specified in the settings file for the customer account. The recording criteria for at least one of the customer accounts includes account-level settings for selecting VoIP calls to be recorded and sets of user-level settings indicating criteria for preventing recording of VoIP calls of the individual users.

An example method comprising receiving a plurality of categories of availability statuses, receiving a plurality of categories of different contact groups, identifying, for each contact, at least one contact group, receiving a plurality of rules for call handling, each of the plurality of rules being associated with at least one of the different availability statuses and at least one of the different contact groups, receiving a telephone call from a first caller, identifying a caller identifier of the first caller, determining a contact group of the first caller, determining a current availability status of the recipient, identifying an applicable rule based on the contact group of the first caller and the current availability status of the recipient, selecting an audio prompt based on the applicable rule, and presenting the audio prompt to the first caller based on the applicable rule, the audio prompt indicating a preference of communication.

A communications device is disclosed. The communications device comprises a memory configured to store instructions and a processor configured to execute the instructions to receive data representing a message provided by a caller, determine at least an attribute of the message based on the received data, generate one or more options based on the attribute of the message, and present the one or more options to the caller to prompt the caller to take an additional action related to the message.

Methods and apparatus are described for a telephony server screening voice calls. In one embodiment, the telephony server receives, form an originating device, an incoming call to be routed to a receiving device. The server answers the incoming call to establish a communication link with the originating device. The server transmits, via the communication link, a challenge audio signal containing an audio message for playback by the originating device. The server receives, via the communication link, a response from the originating device, and, in response to authenticating the response, routes the incoming call to the receiving device. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.

Endpoints, such as telephones, on a communication network may request an interactive communication with another endpoint. While the request is being processed, the calling endpoint may receive a call from the called endpoint. Systems and methods are provided that automatically allow one endpoint to accept the incoming call, such as by joining the two calls, and terminating their outbound call. As a result, endpoints attempting to call each other may be connected with a single call without requiring any endpoint to be routed to voicemail due to their called endpoint being busy. Additionally, arbitration rules may be provided to resolve any “race condition” where both endpoints would otherwise each accept or each decline their incoming call.

A method and system for identifying an unwanted caller using a call answering system. The method comprises receiving, by a call records server, information about callers from a plurality of telephony devices and one or more phone number data sources, classifying, by the call records server, one or more of the callers as either wanted or unwanted callers based on the received information, and storing, by the call records server, the received information and the classification of the one or more of the callers into a directory. The method further comprises identifying, by a call answering server, that a call from a given caller from a phone number to a receiving telephony device is from an unwanted caller by searching the directory, and handling, by the call answering server, the call from the given caller according to one or more preferences of the user, the one or more preferences including rejecting the call from the receiving telephony device, playing a recorded message, and disposing of the call.

A system for managing a conference call, the system comprising a call answering server configured to receive a call from an attendee device that has been forwarded from a host device, identify a conference call associated with the host device for the attendee device to join, receive a request from the attendee device to join the conference call, and connect the attendee device to the conference call.

An automatic call blocking and routing system. The system includes input and output ports, a telephone line interface and an off-hook circuit in communication with the input port, an output port, a switch in communication with the input and output ports, memory, a user-operable control, and a microprocessor responsive to the user-operable control to store in the memory data indicative of blocked callers. The microprocessor is responsive to an incoming call to compare the stored data with caller ID data in the incoming call. If the caller ID data matches a blocked caller, the microprocessor blocks the call by causing the off-hook circuit to send an off-hook signal to the input port, waiting a predefined interval of time, and then causing the off-hook circuit to send an on-hook signal to the input port.