CALL ON-HOLD IMPROVEMENTS

AMELIORATIONS APPORTEES A L'APPEL EN ATTENTE

English Abstract

In a communication system wherein a communication connection is established between a communication apparatus of a first subscriber and a communication apparatus of a second subscriber, a method of terminating the communication connection by a subscriber placed on hold comprises the steps of displaying to the on hold subscriber a prompt to leave a message; in response to selection of the prompt, recording the message left by the on hold subscriber; transmitting the message to the other subscriber; terminating the communication connection; and providing a visual indication to the other subscriber that the communication connection has been terminated by the on hold subscriber and that the on hold subscriber has sent a message. A method of signifying one of the subscriber's desire to return to a communication connection when the communication connection has been placed on hold is also provided.

French Abstract

Un système de communication au sein duquel une connexion de communication est établie entre l'appareil de communication d'un premier abonné et l'appareil de communication d'un deuxième abonné, un système pour mettre fin à une connexion de communication par un abonné mis en attente comprend les étapes consistant à enregistrer un message à l'attention de l'abonné mis en attente pour l'inciter à laisser un message ; en réponse à la sélection du message, enregistrement d'un message laissé par l'abonné mis en attente ; transmission du message à l'autre abonné ; fin de la connexion de communication ; et transmission d'une indication visuelle à l'autre abonné pour lui indiquer que l'abonné mis en attente a mis fin à la connexion de communication et que l'abonné mis en attente a laissé un message. Système pour signifier que l'abonné souhaite reprendre la communication lorsque l'appel a été mis en attente.

Claims

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We Claim:

1. In a communication system wherein a communication connection is
established between a communication apparatus of a first subscriber and a
communication apparatus of a second subscriber, a method of terminating the
communication connection by a subscriber placed on hold comprising the steps
of:
(i) displaying to said on hold subscriber a prompt to leave a message;
(ii) in response to selection of said prompt, recording the message left by
said on hold subscriber;
(iii) transmitting the message to the other subscriber;
(iv) terminating the communication connection; and
(v) presenting a visual indication to said other subscriber that said
communication connection has been terminated by said on hold subscriber and
that
said on hold subscriber has sent a message, said visual indication being
presented in a
manner to place said other subscriber in immediate context for said message.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein during said communication
connection, icons representing said subscribers are displayed to both
subscribers and
wherein upon termination of said communication connection at step (iv), the
icon
displayed to the other subscriber representing the on hold subscriber is
replaced with
an icon representing said message.
3. The method of claim 1 or 2 wherein the prompt to leave a message is
displayed to said on hold subscriber in response to on hold subscriber input.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein said on hold subscriber input is a
mouse click on an icon representing a subscriber.
5. The method of claim 1 or 2 wherein during step (ii) said on hold
subscriber can record either a voice message, a text message or a video
message.
6. The method of any one of claims 1 to 4 wherein during step (i) said on
hold subscriber is prompted either to send a message prior to terminating the


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communication connection or to terminate the communication connection
immediately.
7. The method of claim 6 wherein at step (ii) a window is displayed to
said on hold subscriber, said window including a box for a text message, a box
for a
voice message and a box for a video message, one of the boxes being selectable
to
allow said on hold subscriber to leave either a voice message, text message or
video
message.
8. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of presenting the
message to the other subscriber as soon as said other subscriber returns to
the
communication connection.
9. The method of claim 1 wherein at step (i) the prompt to leave a
message is displayed to said on hold subscriber as soon as said on hold
subscriber is
placed on hold.
10. The method of claim 9 wherein said message is a voice message.
11. The method of claim 10 wherein during step (i) said on hold subscriber
is prompted either to send a message prior to terminating the communication
connection or to terminate the communication connection immediately.
12. The method of claim 11 wherein said prompt is selected by entering a
soft key sequence via the communication apparatus of said on hold subscriber.
13. In a communication system wherein a communication connection is
established between a communication apparatus of a first subscriber and a
communication apparatus of a second subscriber, a method of signifying one of
the
subscribers desire to return to a communication connection when said
communication
connection has been placed on hold comprising the steps of:


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(i) generating a reconnection request via the communication apparatus of
the one subscriber;
(ii) transmitting the reconnection request to the other subscriber; and
(iii) in response to the reconnection request, displaying to the other
subscriber a reestablish communication connection icon signifying the one
subscribers desire to return to the communication connection and at least one
deny
communication connection icon, said reestablish communication connection icon
being selectable to reestablish said communication connection and said at
least one
deny communication connection icon being selectable to maintain the on hold
communication connection.
14. The method of claim 13 further comprising the step of reconnecting
the communication connection immediately upon selection of said reestablish
communication connection icon.
15. The method of claim 14 further comprising the steps of transmitting a
deny communication response to said one subscriber upon selection of said at
least
one deny communication connection icon and displaying a message to said one
subscriber signifying said selection.
16. The method of claim 15 further comprising the steps of: displaying
icons representing said first and second subscribers to both subscribers;
during an on
hold condition displaying to the one subscriber their icon as a ghost icon and
displaying to the other subscriber their icon as a ghost icon; and generating
said
reconnection request in response to selection of a ghost icon.
17. The method of claim 16 wherein said a ghost icon is selected via a
mouse click.

Description

1015202530CA 02264230 1999-03-03CALL ON-HOLD IMPROVEMENTS The present invention relates to telephony and in particular to a methodand apparatus for allowing a subscriber placed on hold during a communicationconnection to send a message to another subscriber prior to terminating thecommunication connection. The present invention also relates to a method andapparatus for allowing a subscriber to signify to another subscriber their desire toreturn to a communication connection when the communication connection has beenplaced on hold.Feature telephone sets which provide a display of the status of callssuch as on hold status provide only limited information to a subscriber as to the statusof calls. For example, a telephone set used in a key telephone system may haveseveral lines that it may use. When one of the lines is busy, a light adjacent a pushbutton associated with that line illuminates. However, there is no indication that theline is actually in use or who are the parties in the call.If a caller has placed a call on one line on hold and has made one ormore calls on other lines which may have also been placed on hold, lights associatedwith the lines on hold may flash as a reminder. However, there is no indication as towho is actually on hold. It is often difficult to remember which call on hold belongsto which party. The end result is that calls may be retrieved from hold and the partyaddressed incorrectly.When a conference call is made and several conferences are placed onhold and a subscriber wishes to have a private conversation with one or more of theconferences while excluding others, mistakes can often be made with sometimesembarrassing and costly results when taking conferences off hold and bringing theminto the private conversation.To overcome the above-described problems, a human machineinterface for telephone feature invocation has been developed and is described in U.S.Patent No. 5,533,110 to Pinard et al. issued on July 2, 1996 and assigned to MitelCorporation, assignee of the present invention. The human machine interfaceprovides information to a user which unambiguously indicates which subscribers areparty to a call. The human machine interface also provides a clear indication as to theparties placed on hold, removed from a call or added to a call.1015202530CA 02264230 2001-11-05-2-In some instances, when a subscriber is placed on hold by anothersubscriber, the subscriber may wish to terminate the call but before doing so send amessage to the other subscriber. In the past, this has required the subscriber toterminate the call, call the other subscriber back, wait to be forwarded to the othersubscriber’s voice-mail, leave a voice—mail message and then terminate the call. Also,in some instances, when a subscriber has been placed an on hold condition, asubscriber may wish to signify to the other subscriber that they wish to bereconnected. This has not been possible, giving the subscriber the options of eitherwaiting out the on-hold condition or terminating the call and calling the othersubscriber back in an attempt to reestablish the communication connection.Although the human machine interface referred to above providesunambiguous information concerning the parties to a call and the status of the partiesto the call, call hold improvements are desired to deal with the above describedsituations.It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a novelmethod and apparatus for allowing a subscriber placed on hold during acommunication connection to send a message to another subscriber prior toterminating the communication connection. It is also an object of the presentinvention to provide a novel method and apparatus for allowing a subscriber to signifyto another subscriber their desire to return to a communication connection when thecommunication connection has been placed on hold.According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided in acommunication system wherein a communication connection is established between acommunication apparatus of a first subscriber and a communication apparatus of asecond subscriber, a method of terminating the communication connection by asubscriber placed on hold comprising the steps of:(i) displaying to said on hold subscriber a prompt to leave a message;(ii) in response to selection of said prompt, recording the message left bysaid on hold subscriber;(iii) transmitting the message to the other subscriber;(iv) terminating the communication connection; and. ...._......_...._.—-.—....._......_1015202530CA 02264230 2001-11-05-3-(v) presenting a visual indication to said other subscriber that saidcommunication connection has been terminated by said on hold subscriber and thatsaid on hold subscriber has sent a message, said visual indication being presented in amanner to place said other subscriber in immediate context for said message.Preferably during the communication connection, icons representingthe subscribers are displayed to both subscribers. Upon termination of thecommunication connection at step (iv), the icon displayed to the other subscriberrepresenting the on hold subscriber is replaced with an icon representing the message.It is also preferred that the prompt to leave a message is displayed to the on holdsubscriber in response to on hold subscriber input.Preferably during step (ii), the on hold subscriber can record either avoice message, a text message or a video message. A window is displayed to the onhold subscriber which includes a box for a text message, a box for a voice messageand a box for a video message. One of the boxes can be selected to allow the on holdsubscriber to leave either the voice message, text message or video message.Preferably, the method further comprises the step of presenting themessage to the other subscriber as soon as the other subscriber returns to thecommunication connection.In another embodiment, the prompt to leave a message is displayed tothe on hold subscriber as soon as the on hold subscriber is placed on hold. Theprompt is selected by entering a soft key sequence via the communication apparatusof the on hold subscriber.According to another aspect of the present invention there is providedin a communication system wherein a communication connection is establishedbetween a communication apparatus of a first subscriber and a communicationapparatus of a second subscriber, a method of signifying one of the subscribers desireto return to a communication connection when said communication connection hasbeen placed on hold comprising the steps of:(i) generating a reconnection request via the communication apparatus ofthe one subscriber;(ii) transmitting the reconnection request to the other subscriber; and1015202530CA 02264230 2001-11-05-4-(iii) in response to the reconnection request, displaying to the othersubscriber a reestablish communication connection icon signifying the onesubscribers desire to return to the communication connection and at least one denycommunication connection icon, said reestablish communication connection iconbeing selectable to reestablish said communication connection and said at least onedeny communication connection icon being selectable to maintain the on holdcommunication connection.Preferably, the method further comprises the step of reestablishing theimmediately upon selection of the reestablishcommunication connectioncommunication connection icon. It is also preferred that the method furthercomprises the steps of transmitting a deny communication connection response to theone subscriber upon selection of the at least one deny communication connection iconand displaying a message to the one subscriber signifying the selection.Preferably, the method further comprises the steps of during thecommunication connection, displaying icons representing the first and secondsubscribers to both subscribers; during an on hold condition displaying to the onesubscriber their icon as a ghost icon and displaying to the other subscriber their iconas a ghost icon; and generating the reconnection request in response to selection of aghost icon.The present invention provides advantages in that a subscriber placedon hold can send a message to the other subscriber prior to terminating the callavoiding the need to call the other subscriber back to leave a message. The othersubscriber is notified that the call has been terminated and that a message has beensent putting that subscriber in immediate context for the message. The presentinvention also provides advantages in that a subscriber on hold can signal to the othersubscriber that they wish to return to a communication connection even though the onhold condition exists.Embodiments of the present invention will now be described morefully with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:Figure l is a schematic diagram of a communications system overwhich communication connections between subscribers may be established;1015202530CA 02264230 1999-03-03-5-Figure 2 to 10 are diagrams of displays on personal computersillustrating a call on-hold improvement in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent invention;Figures 11 to 13 are diagrams of displays on personal computersillustrating a call on-hold improvement in accordance with another embodiment of thepresent invention;Figure 14 is a schematic diagram of two subscriber display phone setsforming part of the communications system of Figure 1;Figure 15 are schematic diagrams illustrating the agent layout andmessage flow during handling of the call on-hold improvement of Figures 2 to 10; andFigure 16 are schematic diagrams illustrating the agent layout andmessage flow during handling of the call on-hold improvement of Figures 11 to 14.Referring now to Figure 1, a communications system is shown and isgenerally indicated to by reference numeral 110. As can be seen, the communicationssystem includes a phone hub server 112 connected to a local area network (LAN) 114.A plurality of display phone sets 116 (best seen in Figure 14) are connected to thephone hub server 112. Each display phone set 116 includes a display 116a, a keypad116b, a handset 1l6c and a plurality of line select buttons 116d which illuminatewhen a line is selected or flash when a line is on hold.A call server 118 is connected to the LAN 114, to a public switchedtelephone network (PSTN)/wide area network (WAN) 120 via trunks 122 and to standalone telephones 124 via individual lines 126. Stand alone telephones 130 andpersonal computers 132 are also connected to the PSTN/WAN 120. Telephones 134are connected to the personal computers 132 by way of universal serial busses (USB)136. Personal computers 132 are also connected to the LAN 114 and have telephones134 connected to them via USBs 136.The phone hub server 112 and the call server 118 both implementMVIP technology as set out in U.S. Patent No. 5,657,446 entitled “Local AreaCommunications Server System” to Pinard et al issued on August 12, 1997, assignedto Mitel Corporation, assignee of the present invention. The phone hub server 1121015202530CA 02264230 1999-03-03-5-handles the display phone sets 116 while the call server 118 handles the trunks 122and stand alone telephones 124.The communications system 110 is based on the architecture describedin U.S. Patent No.’5,63 8,494 entitled “Adaptive Communication System” to Pinard etal issued on June 10, 1997 assigned to Mitel Corporation, assignee of the presentinvention. Accordingly, the servers include telephone interface circuits, conferencedigital signal processing circuits, dialing circuits and trunk circuits to enabletelephone calls to be made. The servers also include agents to process calls.Each personal computer 132 includes a monitor 150, a processor 152, akeyboard 154 and a pointing device in the form of a mouse 156. The processor 152executes a telephone applications program which controls the telephone connected toit via agents. In this particular example, the telephone applications program functionsas a communications accessory in a Windows environment. The telephoneapplications program is similar to that disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 5,533,110 entitled“Human Machine Interface For Telephone Feature Invocation” to Pinard et al issuedon July 2, 1996 and assigned to Mitel Corporation, assignee of the present invention.The telephone applications program controls the views, windows andicons appearing on the monitor 150 of the personal computer 132 during a telephonecommunications session. When the telephone applications program is called, itcreates a user icon in the form of a stick figure representing the user logged into theLAN 114. The telephone applications program also provides a call setup icon whichcan be used to tell the telephone applications program that a telephone call is to bemade by dragging the user icon into the call setup icon. When the call setup icon tellsthe telephone‘ applications program that a telephone call is to be made, the telephoneapplications program displays a subscriber directory stored in memory. Thesubscriber directory includes a list of names in the directory together with associatedimage icons. Image icons in the directory can be dragged into the call setup icon ornames can be entered into a dialog box in the call setup icon to initiate telephone calls.At this stage, the telephone applications program creates an icon of the party to becalled and places the icon in the call setup icon beside the user icon. Further specificsof the telephone applications program will now be described with particular referenceto Figures 2 to 14.1015202530CA 02264230 1999-03-03-7-Referring now to Figure 2, a window 200 is shown that is presented onthe monitor 150 of one of the personal computers 132 when the telephone applicationsprogram executed thereby is called. A user icon 202 representing the local user of thetelephone 134 is created by the telephone applications program and is displayed in thewindow 200 with the name of the user (Joe). In this example, the icon 202 is in theform of a stick figure. The telephone applications program also creates and displays acall set up icon 204 which is used to establish a telephone call. As mentioned above,to establish a telephone call, the user moves the user icon 202 into the call set up icon204 by dragging the icon using the mouse 156 or other pointing device. Thetelephone applications program interprets this action as a request to initiate atelephone call.At this point, the telephone applications program displays a directory206 that is stored in memory of the personal computer 132 in the window 200 (seeFigure 3). The directory 206 includes a list of names and associated image icons. Ifthe telephone call is to be made to a party in the directory, the image icon associatedwith that party is dragged into the call set up icon 204 using the mouse 156 or thename of the party is typed into a dialog box 208 in the call setup icon 204 and a returncommand function is invoked.The telephone application program then creates an icon 210representing the party to be called and places the icon with the name of the party(Alice) in the call set up icon 204. The telephone applications program then retrievesthe telephone number from the directory 206 and causes the call server 118 to dialAlice’s telephone number. As soon as Alice answers the call, the call setup icon 204is changed to ‘a call icon 212 and a new call setup icon 204 is presented in the window200 at a location spaced from the call icon 212. Hold and terminate call icons 214 and216 are also displayed in the window 200 (see Figure 4).When Alice answers the call, her personal computer 132 calls thetelephone applications program which in tum presents a window displaying a call icon212 showing the same icons 202 and 210 as displayed on J oe’s personal computer. IfJoe decides to place another call while maintaining the call to Alice, Joe drags his icon202 into the call setup icon 204 causing the directory 206 to be displayed again. Joe’sicon 202 also remains in the call icon 212 but is displayed in ghost form. At this point1015202530CA 02264230 1999-03-03-3-the image icon representing the next party (Fred) to be called is dragged from thedirectory 206 into the call setup icon 204 (see Figure 5). An icon 218 with Fred’sname beside the icon is then created by the telephone applications program and isplaced in the call setup icon 204. The telephone applications program then retrievesFred’s telephone number from the directory 206, causes the call server 118 to placeAlice on hold, and causes the call server to dial Fred’s telephone number.As soon as Fred answers the call, the call setup icon 204 is changed toa call icon 220 including Joe’s icon 202 and Fred’s icon 218 and a new call setup icon204 is presented in the window 200. Thus, the monitor 150 of Joe’s personalcomputer 132 presents two call icons 212 and 220, one showing the current telephonecommunication connection to Fred and the other showing the on-hold communicationconnection to Alice (see Figure 6).When Alice is put on hold as a result of Joe making the second call toFred, Joe’s icon 202 in the call icon 212 is in ghost form to signify visually to Joe thatAlice has been put on hold. The telephone applications program executed by A1ice’spersonal computer 132 changes her icon 210 in the call icon 212 to ghost formsignifying visually to Alice that the call to Joe has been placed on hold (see Figure 7).If Alice does not want to wait on hold, Alice can terminate the call immediately eitherby going on-hook or by dragging her icon 210 into the terminate call icon 216. Thetelephone applications program recognizes this as a command to go on-hook andterminate the telephone communication coimection.Alternatively, Alice has the option of sending a message to Joe prior toterminating the telephone communication connection. To send a message to Joe,Alice uses the mouse 156 to move the cursor over her ghost icon 210 and performs aright mouse click. The telephone applications program in turn opens a directory 230having a number of selectable options including a hang-up option 232 and a sendmessage option 234 (see Figure 8). If the send message option 234 is selected, thetelephone applications program opens a send message icon 240 which allows theAlice either to leave a text message, a voice message or a video message (see Figure9). The send message icon 240 includes selectable text, voice and video boxes 242,244 and 246 respectively. If the text box 242 is selected, text can be typed into anassociated dialog box 248. If the voice box 244 is selected, a tape recorder 248 is1015202530CA 02264230 1999-03-03-9-displayed which can be operated using the mouse 156 in a known manner to record avoice message. If the video box 246 is selected, a video file message can be created.Once the message is created, the message can be sent to Joe by pressing a send button250 in the send message icon 240 using the mouse 156.When the send button 250 is pressed, the telephone applicationsprogram sends the message to the call server 118 which routes the message to Joe.The telephone applications program then terminates the communication connection.The call icon 212 displayed on the monitor 150 of Alice’s personal computer 132 isreplaced with the call setup icon 204 to allow Alice to initiate another telephone call.When the message sent by Alice is received by Joe’s personalcomputer 132, the telephone applications program immediately replaces Alice’s icon210 in the call icon 212 with a message icon 260 to notify Joe that Alice hasterminated the communication connection but has left a message placing Joe inimmediate context for the message (see Figure 10). When Joe returns to the call icon212 either by terminating the call with Fred or by placing Fred on hold, the telephoneapplications program opens a message window and presents the message to Joe. Inthe case of a text message, the message is displayed in a text box. In the case of avoice message, a tape recorder icon is presented and is conditioned to play the voicemessage. In the case of a video message, a video recorder icon is presented and isconditioned to play the video file message.During a communication connection, either party to the call can placethe other party on hold by dragging that party’s icon from the call icon into the holdicon 214. For example, if Joe drags Alice’s icon 210 into the hold icon 214, thetelephone applications program causes the call server 118 to place the communicationconnection to Alice on hold. When the communication connection is placed on hold,Joe’s icon 202 in the call icon 212 as presented in the window 200 on the monitor 150of Joe’s personal computer 132 is shown as a ghost to signify visually that Alice is onhold (see Figure 1 1). Likewise, Alice’s icon 210 in the call icon 212 displayed in thewindow 200 on the monitor 150 of Alice’s personal computer 132 is shown as aghost.During the on-hold condition, if either Joe or Alice wishes toreestablish the communication connection, they can signal the other party. For10l5202530CA 02264230 1999-03-03-10-example, if Joe wishes to signify to Alice that he wants to reestablish thecommunication connection, Joe places the cursor over his ghost icon 202 andperforms a lefl mouse click. The telephone applications program detects this actionand generates a reestablish communication connection request. The reestablishcommunication connection request is then sent to Alice’s personal computer 132.When the reestablish connection request is received by Alice’spersonal computer, a request connection icon 270 is displayed in the widow 200presented on the monitor 150 of Alice’s personal computer 132 (see Figure 12). Therequest connection icon 270 includes three response buttons, namely a “yes” button272, a “no” button 274 and a “just a minute” button 276. If the “yes” button 272 isselected using the mouse 156, the telephone applications program causes the callserver 118 to reestablish the communication connection tenninating the on-holdcondition. If the no or just a minute button 274 or 276 respectively is selected, the onhold condition is maintained. The telephone applications program however, sends amessage back to the Joe responding to the reestablish communication request. Themessage corresponds with Alice’s button selection. When Joe’s personal computerreceives the message, a reply icon 280 corresponding to Alice’s selection is displayedin the window 200 (see Figure 13). A similar process occurs when Alice wishes toreestablish the communication connection and performs a left mouse click on herghost icon 210.The phone hub server 112 also includes telephone applicationsprograms to allow parties using display phone sets 116 to send messages to otherparties prior to terminating on-hold communication connections.‘ When a telephone call is initiated by a caller (John) using a displayphone set 116, a line is selected by John causing a light in the line select button 116dassociated with the selected line to illuminate. The telephone number of the partybeing called (J ane) is then dialed. The phone hub server 112 handles the displayphone set 116 and causes the call server 118 to dial the telephone number to establishthe telephone call. When Jane answers, J ane’s name appears in the display 116a ofJohn’s display phone set 116 (see Figure 14). Likewise, when Jane answer’s, John’sname appears in the display 116a of J ane’s display phone set 116.1O15202530CA 02264230 1999-03-03-11-If John places Jane on hold either by selecting another line to make oranswer another call or by pressing a hold button, the on hold communicationconnection is detected by the telephone applications program. The telephoneapplications program sends a message to Jane causing the message to be displayed onthe display 116a of J ane’s display phone set 116 notifying Jane of the on-holdcondition and giving Jane the option to terminate the call immediately or to send amessage to John prior to terminating the call by entering an appropriate soft keydialing sequence.When the terminate call sofi key sequence is entered by J ane, it isdetected by the telephone applications program. The telephone applications programcauses the phone hub server 112 to signal the call server 118 to terminate the call.When the send message soft key sequence is entered, it is detected by the telephoneapplications program and prompts Jane to record a voice-mail message. When thevoice-mail message has been completed, the telephone applications program causesthe phone hub server 112 to send the voice-mail message to the call server 118 whichin turn passes the message to John. The telephone applications program in the phonehub server 112 handling J ohn’s display phone set 116 receives and holds the voice-mail message from Jane and updates the display 116a on John's display phone set tonotify John that Jane has left a message. When John returns to J ane’s line, the voice-mail message is presented to John.Referring now to Figure 15, a message sequence diagramcorresponding to Figures 2 to 10 is shown wherein agents handle communications.When a call is to be placed on hold (1), the user agent 300 associated with the partyplacing the call on hold informs the user agent 302 associated with the party to beplaced on hold (2). The user agent 302 in turn displays this to the party (3). If theparty placed on hold elects to send a message prior to terminating the call, the useragent 302 receives a send message request (4). The user agent 302 asks for themessage (5) and when the message is received (6), sends the message together with ahang-up request to the user agent 300 (7). The user agent 300 upon receiving themessage and hang-up request notifies the party (8) and stores the message in adatabase (9). When the party wishes to access the message (10), the user agent 300retrieves the message from the database (11) and presents the message to the party10152025CA 02264230 1999-03-03-12-(12). Phone agents or display agents and desktop controller agents (not shown) areprovided to manage the telephones and/or personal computers.When parties are on hold and one of the parties wishes to reestablishthe communication connection and signal this to the other party, the user agent 304informs the user agent 306 (see Figure 16). The user agent 306 in turn informs theparty of the reestablish communication connection request and displays the retrieveoptions to the party. If the party selects the reconnect call option, the user agent 306is notified and informs the user agent 304 that it is accepting the reestablishcommunication connection request. The user agent 304 then informs the user agent306 to reconnect the communication link and the displays of the parties are updated toshow that the on-hold condition has been terminated.As will be appreciated, the telephone applications programs executedby the personal computers and phone hub server allow parties placed on hold toterminate telephone calls but before doing so leave messages for the other parties.This avoids the need for callers to have to hang up and call back to access calledparties’ voice-mail. The telephone applications program also provides advantages inthat a party placed on hold can flag the other party indicating that they wish to beremoved from hold and reconnected.Although the present application has been described with reference tothe agent architecture described in U.S. Patent No. 5,638,494 to Pinard et al, those ofskill in the art will appreciate that the on hold improvements can be incorporated intotelephony systems using other architectures. Those of skill in the art will alsoappreciate that variations and modifications may be made to the present inventionwithout departing from the spirit and scope thereof as defined by the appended claims.

Representative Drawing