Wireless multi-media messaging communications method and apparatus

Abstract

A wireless multimedia messaging communications method and apparatus that permits a subscriber to a wireless telecommunications service to receive and generate multimedia messages from known wireless personal communications devices, i.e., cellular/PCS telephones. A multimedia message may be received by the network and selectively delivered to a subscriber of the wireless service. Upon receipt of the message, the network determines an appropriate action to take with respect to the message based upon a profile of the subscriber. The subscriber is then notified by the network of the message and then delivers the message and any multimedia attachments to the message to the subscriber, according to a delivery indication sent by the subscriber to the network. Advantageously, the method allows for the conversion of messages as appropriate, i.e., text-to-speech, text-to-fax, provides gateways to varieties of multimedia information such as that found on the Internet and provides an active messaging format wherein message templates are stored on a mobile device that interprets the active messages thereby permitting a subscriber to quickly compose a message by supplying simple, dynamic components of the message.