Short voice message (SVM) service method, apparatus and system

Method for use in a telecommunications network for providing messages between users, comprising

• receiving a voice message transmitted from a first terminal for forwarding to a second user at a second terminal,
• checking availability of said second terminal or said second user using a presence service, and sending the voice message only if available, wherein said checking availability is a checking of a status marker (298) of a presence tuple (292) among a plurality of presence tuples of presence information (290) maintained by a presence service (248), wherein said sending the received voice message is carried out by a service (270, 310) sending the received voice message to an inbox (274) having an inbox address (314) associated with said presence tuple (292).

A messaging system comprising at least one terminal and a server, wherein

• the terminal comprises means for transmitting presence information to the server and means for receiving presence information from the server, and the server comprises means for maintaining presence information characterized in that said presence information includes presence tuples, each tuple comprising a status marker and a communication address identifying at least one of a short voice message (SVM) service and an SVM inbox address, and in that
• said system includes an SVM service, responsive to an instant voice message from a sending principal addressed to an SVM inbox, for checking said status marker of said SVM inbox and for delivering said instant voice message if said status marker indicates availability for receipt thereof.

Terminal for accessing an instant messaging service for receiving instant messages from senders of instant messages and for providing instant messages to inboxes, said service associated with a presence service for receiving presence information about presentities and for providing said presence information to watchers, said terminal comprising:

• a short voice message (SVM) watcher user agent (278) for receiving presence information about an SVM presentity (254);
• and
• an SVM sender user agent (280) for providing an SVM to an SVM server (270) for delivery if said presence information indicates availability.

A data structure embodied in a computer-readable medium for storage in a physical device, characterized in that

• the data structure is a short voice message (SVM) presence information (290) database for storing SVM presence tuples (292, 294, 296, . . . , n), each tuple having a status marker (298) indicative of availability for receipt of short voice messages, and a communication address (302, 304, . . . , n) indicative of at least one of an SVM service (310, 312, . . . , n) and an SVM inbox address (314, 316, . . . , n).