Efficient instant messaging using a telephony interface

A system for facilitating instant messaging for a telephony user comprising:

• a) a communication interface for communicating with an instant messaging (IM) service and an audio interface associated with a speech recognition function and capable of communicating with the telephony user;
• and
• b) a control system associated with the communication interface and adapted to:
• i) receive an IM message, which contains information and is directed to a telephony user, from a text-based IM user via the IM service;
• ii) create a speech recognition grammar based on the information in the IM message, wherein said speech recognition grammar constrains speech recognition of an audible response to a subset of a universe of potentially spoken words;
• and
• iii) send the speech recognition grammar to the audio interface to control speech recognition of an audible response form the telephony user.

A computer readable medium with software facilitating instant messaging for a telephony user and comprising instructions for a computer to:

• a) receive an IM message, which contain information and is directed to the telephony user, from a text-based IM user via an IM service;
• b) create a speech recognition grammar based on the information in the IM message, wherein said speech recognition grammar constrains speech recognition of an audible response to a subset of a universe of potentially spoken words;
• and
• c) send the speech recognition grammar to an audio interface to control speech recognition of an audible response from the telephony user.

A method for facilitating instant messaging (IM) for a telephony user comprising:

• receiving an IM message, which contains information and is directed to the telephony user, from a text-based IM user via an IM service, said information containing a query and a number of predefined acceptable responses separated by predefined punctuation marks;
• creating a speech recognition grammar based on said information in the IM message;
• creating an audible message from the information, said audible message including the query and the number of predefined acceptable responses;
• sending the audible message to the telephony user;
• and sending the speech recognition grammar to a speech recognition system to control the predefined acceptable responses.