Third party server that supports a content provider

A system that includes (i) a plurality of mobile wireless devices, each of which transmits at least some messages to at least some recipient devices that correspond to subscribers of a service for receiving packet-switched messages and at least some messages over a cellular network to at least some recipient devices that do not correspond to subscribers of the service, (ii) at least one server that supports the service, wherein the at least one server that supports the service receives packet-switched messages transmitted via the service to recipient devices that correspond to subscribers of the service, before delivery to a recipient device, wherein each of the plurality of mobile wireless devices has a wireless local area network (WLAN) transceiver that transmits messages to a WLAN base station and subsequently over the Internet to the at least one server that supports the service, wherein each of the mobile wireless devices includes a cellular transceiver that transmits messages to a cellular base station of the cellular network before delivery to a recipient device, wherein the cellular transceiver and the cellular base station communicate using a radio communications protocol that supports transmission of multimedia messages comprising at least one of images, audio clips or videos, the system comprising:

• at least one third party server that supports at least one third party content provider, wherein the at least one third party server is separate from the at least one server that supports the service;
• and
• an information storage device for storing capability information;
• wherein, when a packet-switched message is transmitted from a mobile wireless device of a subscriber to the at least one third party content provider, the at least one server that supports the service does not reveal a mobile phone number of the subscriber to the at least one third party content provider;
• wherein the at least one third party server receives the packet-switched message from the at least one server that supports the service with a mapping identifier that maps to the mobile phone number of the subscriber that transmitted the packet-switched message;
• wherein the service allows the mobile wireless device of the subscriber to disable transmission of messages via the service from the at least one third party server to the mobile wireless device of the subscriber;
• wherein the at least one third party server sends marketing messages to a mobile wireless device of the mobile wireless devices, wherein at least some of the marketing messages are delivered to the mobile wireless device via the service and at least other marketing messages of the marketing messages are delivered to the mobile wireless device via another message protocol, wherein a delivery method for the marketing messages is selected based at least in part on the capability information stored in the information storage device and based at least in part on whether the mobile wireless device has failed to communicate with the at least one server that supports the service.

A system comprising:

• at least one third party server that communicates with a plurality of mobile wireless devices and supports at least one third party content provider, wherein each of the plurality of mobile wireless devices transmits at least some messages to at least some recipient devices that correspond to subscribers of a service for receiving packet-switched messages and at least some messages over a cellular network to at least some recipient devices that do not correspond to subscribers of the service;
• and
• an information storage device for storing capability information;
• wherein at least one server that supports the service receives packet-switched messages transmitted via the service to recipient devices that correspond to subscribers of the service, before delivery to a recipient device, wherein the at least one third party server is separate from the at least one server that supports the service;
• wherein each of the plurality of mobile wireless devices has a wireless local area network (WLAN) transceiver that transmits messages to a WLAN base station and subsequently over the Internet to the at least one server that supports the service;
• wherein each of the mobile wireless devices includes a cellular transceiver that transmits messages to a cellular base station of the cellular network before delivery to a recipient device, wherein the cellular transceiver and the cellular base station communicate using a radio communications protocol that supports transmission of multimedia messages comprising at least one of images, audio clips or videos;
• wherein, when a packet-switched message is transmitted from a mobile wireless device of a subscriber to the at least one third party content provider, the at least one server that supports the service does not reveal a mobile phone number of the subscriber to the at least one third party content provider;
• wherein the at least one third party server receives the packet-switched message from the at least one server that supports the service with a mapping identifier that maps to the mobile phone number of the subscriber that transmitted the packet-switched message;
• wherein the service allows the mobile wireless device of the subscriber to disable transmission of messages via the service from the at least one third party server to the mobile wireless device of the subscriber;
• wherein the at least one third party server sends marketing messages to recipient devices, wherein at least some of the marketing messages are delivered to at least some of the recipient devices via the service and at least other marketing messages of the marketing messages are delivered to at least some recipient devices via SMS;
• wherein either an SMS bearer or a packet-switched bearer is selected for each of the marketing messages based at least in part on the capability information stored in the information storage device.

A system comprising:

• at least one server that communicates with a plurality of mobile wireless devices and supports at least one content provider, wherein each of the plurality of mobile wireless devices transmits at least some messages to at least some recipient devices that correspond to subscribers of a service for receiving packet-switched messages and at least some messages over a cellular network to at least some recipient devices that do not correspond to subscribers of the service;
• wherein at least one of the plurality of mobile wireless devices adds at least one mobile wireless phone number corresponding to a mobile wireless device of the plurality of mobile wireless devices to a channel;
• wherein the at least one server determines whether messages of the service comprise keywords;
• wherein the at least one server sends marketing messages to recipient devices, wherein at least some of the marketing messages are delivered to at least some recipient devices via the service and at least other marketing messages of the marketing messages are delivered to at least some recipient devices via SMS, wherein at least some of the marketing messages comprise information related to the keywords;
• wherein either an SMS bearer or a packet-switched bearer is selected for at least some of the marketing messages, based at least in part on recipient device status;
• wherein the service allows a subscriber to disable transmission of messages via the service.